Society for the Environment (SocEnv)’s Post

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Spring break! Kind of 😅 Today marks the last day of the first course for my post-grad study in environmental management. I submitted by last paper this week, and count some 9,000 words written by yours truly, across the last 10 weeks! Now I have 4 weeks 'break' until my summer course begins. I celebrated this small milestone by attending a webinar (I know!) on constructed wetlands in the Bay of Plenty - a subject I've been chasing down expert opinion on for the last few months. As far as I can tell, BOP offers a head start on an excellent collaborative model for putting larger environmental projects in place - bringing together landowners, NIWA scientists, Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council, local iwi and the community. I like that we're seeing: > Strategic land retirement/land use change > Collaborative approaches > Targeted solutions for highly degraded catchments and receiving environments > Near real time monitoring tools being deployed judiciously > Decent chunks of funding to enable larger works > An open and transparent conversation about the real state of the catchment > The willingness to share what was learned and be clear about the trade offs The early results are certainly promising. Monitoring show the systems are working - significant drops in total nitrogen and total phosphorous, decent changes in sediment. I want to see more of these nature based solutions deployed at pace. Most of the success stories I've heard require a leg up from a motivated regional council. Let's follow BOP's lead and take action.

🚨 TOMORROW! 🌿 Join the PRME Working Group on Climate Change and Environment for a webinar on "Reversing Natural Environmental Agency Costs: The Biggest Challenge and Greatest Opportunity for Business and Society Today." In this webinar, Dr. Amama Shaukat, Associate Professor (Reader) in Accounting and Finance at Brunel Business School, will present her co-authored paper which develops the natural environment agency theory (NEAT) to answer questions like "What specifically can businesses do to reverse environmental degradation and depletion?" 🥀 Articulating an environmental agency relation between business and society, NEAT proposes that environmental pollution, depletion, and degradation resulting from business operations are natural environmental agency costs (NEACs). NEAT argues and provides supporting evidence to show that businesses must reduce NEACs if they are to be financially as well as ‘truly’ environmentally sustainable. NEAT provides a conceptual tool to stimulate innovative ideas and classroom discussions among management students on how businesses and their societal stakeholders can work together to create environmental value.  🔗 Last chance to register 👉 https://lnkd.in/ePv_9Cee

🌿 Join the PRME Working Group on Climate Change and Environment for a webinar on "Reversing Natural Environmental Agency Costs: The Biggest Challenge and Greatest Opportunity for Business and Society Today." In this webinar, Dr. Amama Shaukat, Associate Professor (Reader) in Accounting and Finance at Brunel Business School, will present her co-authored paper which develops the natural environment agency theory (NEAT) to answer questions like "What specifically can businesses do to reverse environmental degradation and depletion?" 🥀 Articulating an environmental agency relation between business and society, NEAT proposes that environmental pollution, depletion, and degradation resulting from business operations are natural environmental agency costs (NEACs). NEAT argues and provides supporting evidence to show that businesses must reduce NEACs if they are to be financially as well as ‘truly’ environmentally sustainable. NEAT provides a conceptual tool to stimulate innovative ideas and classroom discussions among management students on how businesses and their societal stakeholders can work together to create environmental value. 🔗 Register today to learn more 👉 https://lnkd.in/ePv_9Cee

The Ministry of the Environment has granted 137 900 euros for the planning of new industrial areas for green industry in Kristinestad – Kristiinankaupunki – City of Kristinestad The planning consists of three projects: 1. Planning of a new industrial area that will also be suitable for the chemical industry, such as hydrogen production, i.e., Power-2-X, 2. Investigation and planning of a connection between Björnö harbor and the northern industrial area, 3. A new industrial area close to Björnö harbor. In addition to the planning work itself, the projects have also budgeted money for environmental, land, and archaeological surveys, as well as carbon capture calculations. The fact that the Ministry of the Environment has granted such a large sum is a sign that we in Kristinestad are doing the right things. With the state funding, our work towards a green transition that benefits both people and the environment can be realized more quickly.

Yesterday was another day full of interesting discussions here at the IUSS Centennial. There was a clear theme around effective communication, engagement and advocacy. The British Society of Soil Science held an excellent session on #soilhealth for people and planet, hosted by our President Jacqueline Hannam and bringing together a superb panel comprising The Hon Penny Wensley (former National Soils Advocate of Australia), Leigh Winowiecki (Co-Lead for the Coalition of Action for Soil Health) and Irene Heuser (Chair of the Specialist Group on Soil and Sustainable Agriculture Law of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law). It was clear from the discussion that we need to better communicate to address the challenge of a lack of awareness and appreciation of soils but need to do so with an understanding of the stretched resources in many administrations. So we need to find ways of getting traction through, or aligned with, existing initiatives whilst we continue to advocate for clearly stated aspirations around soils. And advocacy for soils really was drawn out as a key challenge and opportunity. It is notable that Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State, stated just at the start of this year in a speech at the World Economic Forum, that “the truth is soil is literally at the root of many pressing national security challenges that we face”. Many people have over time emphasised the link between soil and national security and stability. Maybe now the message is being heard more loudly, and so maybe we will see greater investment in soil to build resilience across communities. Arcadis

The best way to restore an ecosystem is to convert the value of the ecosystem services to human currency, the only way humans act is when they see a profitable venture. The Australian Government has come up with a Guide to measure and quantify the benefits of Blue Carbon Ecosystem Restoration. #naturebasedsolutions #bluecarbon #ecosystemrestoration

NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER! Thanks to Ruth Little Judith Tsouvalis Jose Luis Fajardo Escoffie and Sue Hartley for their work and co-authorship! Thanks to ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council for funding. I am pleased to share this paper looking at the early years (2018-2020) of ELMs co-design by Defra. Though we acknowledge that co-design activities changed after these initial years, the paper explores the challenges faced by Defra when attempting to co-design new agri-environment policies with land managers. Challenges for government policy co-design included (a) Mismatched temporalities, (b) Political uncertainty, (c) Recruitment and staff turnover, (d) Silo thinking, (e) Institutional cultures, (f) Government hierarchies and power, (g) Feedback loops and communications [challenge of feeding back to stakeholders], and (h) Inclusivity of the process [some groups/people included more than others]. The paper reflects on how government institutional cultures and practices would need to change to achieve the ideals of co-design, if this is ever possible. https://lnkd.in/eVNYYY3z Soon, we intend to publish an editorial bringing together this paper with four great articles already published on policy co-design! Fiona Williams Michael Lee Professor Ken Sloan Alex Hardie Simon Thelwell Laura Palczynski Dr Kreseda Smith Gemma Charlton Holly Vickery Dimitrios Paparas Dimitrios Iakovidis Karl Behrendt Dr Charlotte-Anne Chivers Damian Maye Chris Short Siobhan Maderson Julie Urquhart Dr Bianca Ambrose-Oji, Tom MacMillan Kate Pressland Andy Lewis Rosie Morrison Aimee Morse Jessica Lyon

Here’s a document stocktaking Australia’s blue carbon. For reference for those interested. Karenne Tun, PhD Yang Shufen #CityinNature #carbon #sustainability #naturebasedsolutions

Earlier this year, #SEAwise and @ICES_ASC hosted a joint workshop benchmarking methods to incorporate the impact of environmental and ecological factors on fish stocks in Management Strategy Evaluations), with the aim of making recommendations on their integration in European management processes. Included among the methods reviewed were those used by SEAwise, and the workshop resulted in a series of good practice considerations for the incorporation of environmental considerations in MSE tools. Dive into the workshop report here: https://loom.ly/zkDFhXI