We are already well underway on what promises to be a busy year for EIC and its members. Our newly formed taskforces are starting to progress their annual plans, and we are soon to launch an exciting new industry wide campaign.

Following the EIC Advocacy refresh in the summer of 2022, four new taskforces were established which align with the themes of the Environmental Act: air quality, nature and biodiversity, waste and resource efficiency, and water.

These taskforces provide a constructively critical view of the Act’s implementation, as well as promote members’ skills, knowledge, and expertise in supporting its objectives.

All four of our new taskforces have hit the ground running, hosting roundtables with key stakeholders including Natural England, Defra, Innovate UK, and the British Standards Institution (BSI). Our two working groups on contaminated land and Laboratory Analysis continue their important work, including on the brownfield first campaign.

Two recent announcements impacting many our groups here at the EIC includes Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework, and the UK government’s five-year environmental delivery plan.

The new framework, in particular, is timely, because it has the potential to improve existing and create more good quality green infrastructure, and drive the ambition to create and maintain sustainable places. EIC members will be engaging with this new framework, but are keen to understand more on the impact of the standards, given they are going to be voluntary.

The five-year environmental delivery plan, published by government earlier this month, states that environmental protection and enhancement will be embedded into the design and development of new policy across government. 

This is particularly important when we consider recent changes to government departments, and the need to ensure effective delivery of the Environment Act. EIC look forward to working collaboratively with government on the next steps.

Finally, I’m sure that readers will be interested to hear about EICs forthcoming ‘Innovation Campaign’.

The joint campaign, between EIC and the Association for Consultancy and Engineering, will showcase the innovation in delivery from our membership base.

As part of the campaign, EIC will soon release a report on ‘barriers to innovation’ across environmental industries, and how we unlock some of these challenges to deliver green economic growth. I look forward to presenting our findings and recommendations in due course.

EIC is on the up. Membership provides access to our groups across all environmental topics, exclusive access to our roundtables with senior policymakers and political leaders, access to funding opportunities and the chance to shape the joint ACE/EIC campaigns.

Those interested in joining the EIC can do so by getting in touch with our membership team today.

Guto Davies is head of policy at the EIC.