19Feb 2019
Rebecca Jones joins CEP

NEW CONSULTANT JOINS CEP

Rebecca Jones has recently joined CEP as a Consultant. She has a background in biological sciences and recently completed an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London, specialising in Global Environmental Change and Policy. She has strong quantitative and qualitative research and analytical skills and has experience of undertaking research and analysis on topics including food security and sustainable agriculture, plastic pollution, and climate justice. Her Master’s thesis explored the role of philanthropy in the environmental governance of ocean plastic pollution. She also has previous experience of environmental campaigning.

Rebecca will be working on a number of projects for CEP, including FORENV – the new EU foresight system to detect emerging environmental issues; and Our Bright Future.

Team CEP
30Jan 2019
New report by CEP on community resilience

NEW REPORT BY CEP EVALUATES A PILOT ON DEVELOPING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE IN CORNWALL

CEP‘s evaluation of Phase 1 of the Communities Prepared project has recently been published by Groundwork South.  Funded by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund to support community resilience across the country, the project aims to help community groups to be better able to respond to, and recover from, flooding and other emergencies.  The pilot phase ran from February 2016 to February 2018 and was implemented by Groundwork South in partnership with Cornwall Community Flood Forum and Cornwall College and supported by national organisations like the Environment Agency.  

The aim of the pilot phase was to test the Community Resilience Toolkit prepared by Cornwall Community Flood Forum following the floods in Cornwall in 2010. CEP was commissioned to design and carry out a process and impact evaluation of the pilot across its two-year lifetime, drawing on information gathered from communities and stakeholders to provide learning which can be used in the Phase 2 application.

The evaluation report can be found at: Communities Prepared Pilot Evaluation

For more information contact Paula Orr (Technical Director)

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25Jan 2019
CEP staff promotion

New staff promotion at CEP

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We are pleased to announce that Dr Sian Morse-Jones has recently been promoted from Senior Consultant to Principal Consultant, reflecting her well-established commitment to CEP’s approach and the responsibilities she has assumed. Sian has been at CEP since 2017, working on a range of projects across our key areas, including, social research, natural capital, ecosystem services, governance, and evaluation.

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17Jan 2019
CEP investigating EU Environmental Implementation Portal

CEP AND PARTNERS EXPLORE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF AN EU ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION PORTAL (EIP)   

CEP, in conjunction with project partners Bilbomática and Wood Consulting, are undertaking a Feasibility study on the Development and maintenance of an EU Environmental Implementation Portal, under a framework contract led of Milieu Ltd for the Directorate-General (DG) Environment of the European Commission.  

The aim of the project is to examine how a multi-purpose Environmental Implementation Portal (EIP) can be designed as a ‘one stop shop’, to facilitate quick access to the services of information/data that meet the needs of a wide range of users.  The key focus of the portal will be to provide information related to the areas and pieces of environmental legislation under the responsibility of DG Environment (for example air quality, biodiversity, and water legislation), but it could also include information such as environmental data, indicators, and reports. A wide range of users are expected, including policy-makers, NGOs, and academics.

CEP are leading the first two tasks of the project, which seek to identify and analyse different users, their needs and interests, and existing good practice of similar information portals. This will be supported through a mixed-methods approach including user mapping, analysis, desk-based research, and primary data collection through surveys and interviews with stakeholder groups. 

For more information on the project, please contact Ric Eales (Managing Director) or Paula Orr (Technical Director).      

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15Jan 2019
New report by CEP on dog walkers’ attitudes and behaviours

New report provides baseline assessment on dog walkers’ attitudes and behaviours for the South Downs National Park Authority’s ‘Take the Lead’ campaign

CEP were commissioned by the South Downs National Park Authority to undertake a study to establish baseline data on key sites for dog walker behaviour and engagement among heathlands within the South Downs National Park.  The study has informed and is part of the Heathlands Reunited Heritage Lottery Funded project’s Take the Lead campaign which is being led by the National Park Authority.

The study, in 2018, conducted desk research and developed a public survey in order to gain baseline data on dog walkers’ attitudes and behaviours. This survey will be repeated during the final year of the Heathlands Reunited project (2021), in order to explore the impact of the Take the Lead campaign on behaviour change.

The final project baseline report has now been published: The Heathlands Reunited Evaluation of Behaviour Change in Dog Walkers Baseline Report

For more information contact Paula Orr (Technical Director) or Sian Morse-Jones

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4Jan 2019
CEP leading EU sense-making workshops on emerging environmental issues

CEP to lead four sense-making workshops as part of our role as secretariat for the EU Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV)

In our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s new EU Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV), CEP will be moderating four sense-making workshops.  The workshops will be held between the 11th and 17th January 2019 in Ispra (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark) and two in Brussels (Belgium), and will bring together 40 experts from the Commission, EU Member States and research institutions.

The workshops are being organised as part of the first annual cycle of FORENV, which is running from September 2018 – September 2019, and is focusing on the topic ‘Emerging issues at the environment-social interface’.  Across the workshops almost 200 ‘weak signals’ of change related to this topic will be discussed, clustered and prioritised.  Each session will be run in a participatory way to engage and draw on the knowledge of participants.  CEP have led the organisation of the workshops and will be moderating them with support from our partners Cranfield University, Milieu Ltd and representatives of the European Commission.

Drawing on the workshop outcomes, up to 10 priority emerging issues will be proposed for further consideration in the next steps of the FORENV system.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director) or Paula Orr (Technical Director).

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19Dec 2018
CEP-led Consortium delivers second set of European Environment Agency contracts

CEP-LED CONSORTIUM SUCCESSFULLY DELIVERS SECOND SET OF CONTRACTS UNDER EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY FRAMEWORK CONTRACT

CEP is pleased to announce the successful completion of the second set of five contracts awarded during 2018 under the CEP-led framework service contract for the European Environment Agency (EEA) which provides assistance to the consolidation and update of the knowledge base on global megatrends and resource nexus in support of SOER 2020 (the European Environment State and Outlook Report) [1].

The five most recent projects have again had the overarching objective of supporting the framing and content of SOER 2020 by building on the first set of seven contracts to further consolidate the evidence and knowledge base across a range of topics as well as providing new analysis.  

Three projects have directly followed-on from contracts delivered under the first set:

·         The first [2], led by CEP on ‘Drivers of Change’, involved the development and implementation of an analytical framework for identifying and analysing the implications of drivers of change on consumption and production systems in Europe.  This contract built on our previous work on global megatrends and the resource nexus. 

·         The second follow-on contract has supported EEA in the development of the knowledge-base and reporting related to sustainability transitions.  As part of this contract CEP coordinated research and reporting into the empirical description of food, energy and mobility systems in Europe. 

 ·         The third follow-on project, led by CEP, was on urban sustainability and continued our previous work developing a new framework for urban sustainability assessment and supporting the EEA in running related stakeholder events. 

In addition, two specific contracts represented new areas of work.  One identified and characterised critical interactions between environmental SDGs from a European perspective.  CEP provided expert advice on methodology development and developed a report on the implications of the key project findings for EU research, policy and governance.  The other, led by CEP, supported the development of an EEA report, planned for publication in 2019, on the linkages between the environment and quality of life in EEA member countries.  CEP’s contribution to the report focuses on environmental health across Europe, environmental risks to health and the environmental benefits to health and well-being.

All the projects were completed between May and December 2018 and have helped EEA by providing critical inputs, often to tight timescales, to support the drafting of SOER 2020, as well as developing new knowledge and reporting on environmental challenges for Europe from a systems and transitions perspective.

For more information please contact CEP’s Owen White, the overall Framework Contract Manager, or Dr Bill Sheate, the Framework Contract Director.

 

[1] Awarded in May 2017, CEP has now overseen the preparation and delivery of a total of twelve projects awarded under the framework contract to date.  CEP has led the delivery of seven of the twelve projects delivered so far, including overall project management, technical lead on research tasks, and preparing reporting to summarise findings to provide maximum support to the EEA in relation to SOER 2020.  CEP’s work on these projects has involved collaboration with a diverse range of partners including universities and research institutions, consultancies, national environmental agencies and European networks of experts (such as the Eionet network of foresight experts).

[2] Assistance to the development of the report ‘Drivers of change and their implications on the European environment – A systems-based overview’ and to the extension of the analysis of European policies through the resource nexus lens

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30Nov 2018
CEP supporting Evaluation of SEA Directive

CEP TO FACILITATE A WORKSHOP FOR EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON EVALUATION OF THE SEA DIRECTIVE 

As part of the Study to support the REFIT evaluation of Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (SEA Directive) CEP will support the project lead, Milieu Ltd, in delivering a workshop for the European Commission on evaluation of the SEA Directive.

The purpose of the workshop is to present and discuss the emerging findings of the SEA REFIT study with the members of the panel and a wide professional audience including participants from EU member states environmental and other authorities and institutions, European Commission, NGOs, companies and industry associations, practice and academia.

The workshop will be held in Brussels on 6th December.

For more information contact Dr Bill Sheate (Technical Director) or Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant).      

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25Nov 2018
CEP runs assessment training course for EKN

CEP runs successful environmental assessment and ecosystem services training course again in 2018

Dr Bill Sheate, Spela Kolaric and Alex Mackaness delivered once again our very successful one-day training course on environmental assessment and ecosystem services for the Ecosystems Knowledge Network (EKN) this last week to 30 participants, building on the success of previous training courses across the UK during 2016 and 2017.

The one-day training course – on Incorporating ecosystem services and natural capital into environmental assessment – was held at the offices of Tideway, in London on Thursday 22nd November 2018 with participants from consultancies, the environmental agencies from across the UK devolved administrations, academics and practitioners from the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

For further information. including possible future dates, see the EKN link here.

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13Nov 2018
CEP supporting EEA urban sustainability assessment

CEP FACILITATING STAKEHOLDERS MEETING TO SUPPORT EEA’s ASSESSMENT OF URBAN SUSTAINABILITY

For the first time, the European Environment Agency (EEA) will be explicitly addressing urban sustainability in the European Environment State and Outlook Report for 2020 (SOER2020). As part of CEP’s current framework contract with the EEA on forward-looking analysis, sustainability assessments and systemic transitions, CEP in partnership with LSE Cities, PBL and cChange is currently undertaking a contract on urban sustainability to support this aspect of SOER2020. Specifically, the project is building on the knowledge base and other deliverables from a previous contract undertaken by CEP and will deliver an analytical framework and selected nexus analysis for urban sustainability assessments 2019-2020. Another important aim of this project is to develop the approach to an urban sustainability meta-benchmarking exercise.

On 15th and 16th  November, CEP’s Ric Eales and Rolands Sadauskis together with Dr. Philipp Rode from LSE Cities will be facilitating a one and a half day meeting with EEA stakeholders in Copenhagen to seek their input to the ongoing work.

As part of this meeting, Ric and Rolands will present the revised conceptual framework and introduce participants to an analytical framework designed to support the assessment of urban environmental sustainability. They will also facilitate a session on discussing an approach to urban sustainability nexus analysis. Dr Philipp Rode will facilitate a session in which stakeholders will discuss a possible approach to a meta-analysis exercise based on criteria used for awarding a wide range of international urban sustainability awards – what makes a city ‘sustainable’?

Please contact Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant) for more information.

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