27Jan 2021
Alex Holder joins CEP

Alex Holder has recently joined CEP as a Research Intern. Alex has a background in Chemistry, graduating with an Integrated masters degree in Chemistry from the University of Leeds. More recently she completed an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London, specialising in Urban Sustainable Environments.

Her thesis was conducted in partnership with the World Energy Council. The work involved developing a framework for a tool to assess the sustainability performance of urban energy systems. During her studies, she delivered a research project on the societal benefits of low pollution activities for Global Action Plan and led the development of a social enterprise project for cleaner cooking fuels in Nairobi.

She also has experience in science publishing, gained whilst working on the editorial team at Springer Nature, as well as experience working on research projects in Higher Education and delivering programs in youth work.

Alex will be working on a number of CEP projects including FORENV and the Biodiversity Net Gain evaluation framework.

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21Jan 2021
CEP’s EU FORENV work enters its third annual cycle

CEP is supporting the characterisation of priority emerging issues as part of the third annual cycle of the EU foresight system to detect emerging environmental issues

CEP is continuing in our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV).  Now in its third annual cycle, FORENV is focussing on identifying and characterising emerging issues and benefits related to the Zero Pollution ambition for a toxic free environment.  

This topic relates to the overall green transformation for the EU towards becoming a climate-neutral, circular, clean and biodiverse region, as reflected in the European Green Deal.  It was selected by the European Commission as the focus of FORENV due to ongoing work at the Commission on a new EU Zero Pollution Action Plan for air, water and soil to be developed in 2021.  Once complete the outputs of this cycle of FORENV will feed into the first Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook report to be published in 2022.

To deliver FORENV, CEP is working with colleagues from Milieu (Belgium), Cranfield University (UK), the German Federal Environment Agency and Vision Communication (Spain).  The work to deliver each annual cycle includes:

  • A broad scanning to compile and characterise at least 100 weak signals of emerging issues for Europe’s environment.

  • The organisation and facilitation of four participatory sense-making workshops, to identify and select ten priority emerging environmental issues related to the topic (i.e. zero pollution).  Due to Covid-19 in this cycle we will are redesigning and running these workshops online.

  • The characterisation of the ten priority emerging issues to define related risks and opportunities for the environment, through an evidence review and expert discussions.

  • Preparation of a final report including infographic presentation of each emerging issue.  A short video is also prepared for each cycle.  The Cycle 1 video can be viewed here.

More information on FORENV can be found on the European Commission website.  The final report for the first annual cycle was published in December 2019, and the final report for the second annual cycle will be published early in 2021.  The methodology used for FORENV, which was developed for the European Commission through a previous project led by CEP, has also been published.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director), Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant) or Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant).

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6Jan 2021
CEP to support an evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Project for Centre for Alternative Technology

CEP has been awarded a new project by the Centre for Technology (CAT) to conduct a theory of change evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab

CEP, in partnership with Accelar, has been commissioned by Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) to conduct a Theory of Change Evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab.

CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Innovation Lab project will be delivered between 2020 and 2023 and will help communities, local authorities and policymakers to create Zero Carbon Action Plans, and to provide support for the development of innovative solutions, through 3 key mechanisms: an online platform or hub to provide access to information and resources and provide a space for collaborative working and action; training and support; and a series of innovation labs. 

In this project, we will support and work collaboratively with CAT in the monitoring and evaluation of the Zero Carbon Britain Hub and Lab. We will work with CAT to refine the project’s Theory of Change. We will collaborate on the development of a robust Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and method, which supports a formative evaluation process to allow the flexibility required in evaluating complex projects such as this one. We will advise on data collection needs and methods, as well as collecting independent evaluation data, and undertake analysis. And we will provide ongoing evaluation and support for the Zero Carbon Britain team in learning from the evaluation for the project itself as well as to inform CAT more widely.

The project started in October 2020 and will run until March 2023.

For more information, please contact Owen White (Technical Director, CEP) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant, CEP).

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