Call for Environmental and Sustainability Risk Think-Tank Volunteers

2nd October 2017

Unique opportunity to join a 6-month cross-sector Task and Finish Group to path-find and develop guidance on opportunities and resilience in environmental and sustainability risk management

Task and Finish Group including EAUC, HE Business Continuity Network (HEBCoN), and HE Risk Network

EAUC and HEBCoN are looking to establish a multidisciplinary task and finish group to develop environmental risk management guidance and good practice examples, utilising the professional practices of environmental management, estates management, risk management and business continuity planning.
 
We are seeking to recruit Sustainability, Environmental, Estates, Risk and Business Continuity professionals to join a task and finish group with the aim of developing multidisciplinary guidance covering the identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment environmental risk using the principles of risk management and business continuity planning.

The ISO14001:2015 standard requires organisations to look at environmental management from a broader risk perspective.  Institutions must look further than the impact they have on the environment and include the threats and opportunities the environment creates with respect to achieving strategic objectives and resilience.
 
For example: Threat Risk – Climate Change
 

• How do we describe climate change as an institutional risk?
• What is / will be the impact or disruption from climate change on institutions over time?
• What adaptation is necessary to ensure continued achievement of strategic objectives?
• What is causing institutions to fail to address the threat?
• What actions are necessary to mitigate these causes?

For example: Opportunity Risk – Resource Scarcity

•  
• How do we describe resource scarcity as an institutional opportunity?
• How can resource efficiency contribute to strategic objectives?
• Organisationally, what needs to be in place to drive these benefits?
• Operationally, what resource management changes are necessary? 

Institutions that are able to integrate sustainability risk into an existing organisational risk framework will undoubtedly achieve greater embedding of sustainability and environmental management within operations, planning, budgeting, decision-making and governance processes.  This will benefit all Managers, not just those operating ISO14001.

Managers will benefit from understanding the fundamentals of risk management, including how to identify and describe environmental and wider sustainability risks and opportunities.  The practice of risk management comprehensively identifies the internal and external factors that could either support or obstruct the management of environmental risks.  Good risk descriptions generate targeted and prioritised action plans to either mitigate environmental threats or realise opportunities. 

The practice of Business Continuity Planning can also be utilised by Environmental Managers to generate a thorough understanding of the impact over time of the more challenging environmental threats, assisting in the planning for climate change adaptation and resource scarcity, for example.

How to get involved:

We would like to hear from you if you are an Environment, Sustainability, Risk, Business Continuity or Estates professional and you have started to look at environmental management from a risk and/or business continuity perspective.

The intention is to complete the task over 6 months, with participants attending an initial scoping workshop, then engaging in a number of video conference meetings, or physical meetings.  Some participants will then take ownership for the delivery of parts of the output. 

If you are interested, please contact Iain Patton, ipatton@eauc.org.uk