Bill Haylock is president of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) and MD of ELP and Muddy Boots.

As environmental issues become more pressing, environmental advice must become more transparent and professional. There’s a long way to go.

Climate change, water, sustainability and energy are major challenges of the future for society; meeting them flags a new role for environmental practitioners. At the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EINAZ), we have been examining this role and how well prepared we are to take it on.

To meet these future challenges, decision-makers need to integrate consideration of the environment into the planning, development and operation of all activities. They will rely on practitioners to provide accurate, timely and user-friendly information – about environmental sensitivities, vulnerabilities and carrying capacities – and back it up with advice on how to integrate this information into government policies, business strategies and operational practices.

Good information builds understanding, which underpins lasting solutions. Providing the required information will demand practitioners become more sophisticated in their approaches and more influential with decision-makers than ever before – this is step change rather than an incremental improvement.

This means practitioners need to change. We need to move from being seen as part of the fit-out team to being an integral part of the architect’s team on any given project.

Recognising these new challenges, the institute organised a series of events late last year (our 20th anniversary) called EP3: the Third Wave in Environmental Practice. EP3 had a big agenda, with 11 events across Australia and New Zealand involving 750 practitioners and 200 presentations, all focused on understanding the future challenges, how we can play a constructive role in meeting them, and our current preparedness.

We rose to the occasion remarkably well.

Practitioners in a young profession
We have just published a blueprint for the future as the major EP3 output. Our headline finding is sobering. Surveys at all EP3 events show we do not believe we are well prepared to take on the future challenges, with climate change and energy of greatest concern .

At one level this result is surprising as most professions talk up their future abilities. Yet I believe such honesty is a sign of emerging maturity in a young profession.

Environmental practitioners don’t have long-established professional qualifications backed by legislation, unlike engineers, accountants and architects. Yet professional recognition will be increasingly important in the future. Decision-makers in governments and business, and the community, need to know who to trust on the environment.
This will increasingly depend on professional standing.

When it comes to the environment almost everyone has an opinion, but there are only 20,000 or so environmental practitioners in Australia and New Zealand. Of these, only 2,000 have signed a formal Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct as institute members, and just 200 are certified to practice. Certified Environmental Practitioners have earned the trust of their peers. Their skills and experience need to be more widely recognised as reflecting their high standing in the profession.

The institute is determined to play a leading role in preparing practitioners for the future by setting and raising professional standards, and by broadening the recognition of those standards beyond our own profession.

Our blueprint sets out how governments, business, academia, the community and the profession can work together to raise standards of environmental practice. First, we must boost professional development and prepare for the future. To that effect, practitioners, governments, business and the community must together develop bold long-term visions for the future. As part of this, we must identify the professional gaps in meeting the needs, and close them by working with academia and others.

Second, we must build trust in environmental practitioners. The institute will work to raise the awareness of roles played by Certified Environmental Practitioners and those bound by a formal Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. We will also promote certification, including recognition in legislation as other professionals have been. Decision-makers and the community also need to understand the importance of asking practitioners about their standing before accepting their input and advice.

Last, we must improve communications by increasing the clarity and credibility of information about the environment. That is a two-way channel, with practitioners on the one hand and decision-makers and the community on the other needing to engage around their respective requirements.

Download blueprint at www.eianz.org or for more on Certified Environmental Practitioners visit www.cenvp.org