I can’t believe that I have been working as an environmental management consultant and trainer for twenty years. Much like a professional footballer who is playing in his early thirties (I wish) I have achieved veteran status! My career has had its up and downs over the years. But I do not regret it for one minute. When considering the content for this post I thought I would identify what can be more challenging from my experience than carrying out a job. And that is getting a job in environmental management in the first place. The problem is that in competitive job markets, in order to be successful you need…
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Five New Year’s Resolutions for Environmental Practitioners
It that time of the year unfortunately, the festive season is over, winter is in full swing, at least if you are in the northern hemisphere and finances are generally low (at least until February!). However now is the time to set some environmental new year’s resolutions. In this post I’ve come up with a few ideas for environmental professionals. Some will be relevant to you, some not but at least it is a starting point, why not write your own list, but hopefully this will give you some ideas. Pick one impact that your organisation has on the environment, even something small and reduce this impact and tell people…
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It’s That Festive Time of The Year, Environmental Practitioners Let’s Be Positive!
It’s the time of the year when we all start to feel a bit happier than usual, holidays are on their way and as such we can all recharge our batteries and spend some time with our friends and family. I think it’s easy when you are involved in environmental management to be miserable. In some ways I wonder if I am in the business of gloom and doom, after all the process of training people about environmental management generally starts off with a long trawl through how humanity is destroying the environment. From climate change, to waste production to plastic pollution etc we seem to be having a significant…
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NEBOSH Environmental Certificate Practical Assessment – Passing First Time
In this post I thought we could look at what you need to do to get a good mark in the NEBOSH Certificate in Environmental Management practical assignment (called in NEBOSH speak EC2). The assignment pass mark is 60% and you complete the assignment on your own and as such there is no set duration, although NEBOSH state it should probably take around 3 hours. There are two parts to the assignment these are completion of a NEBOSH provided review questionnaire followed by a report. 100 marks are available in total. Read the Guidance The first action you MUST complete is having a good look at the guidance available for…
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IEMA v NEBOSH
Which Environmental Qualification is right for you In this post I thought we could look at IEMA and NEBOSH approaches to environmental management qualifications. By comparing the two approaches at the foundation and advanced levels it might help you choose which is best for you if you want to undertake a formalised environmental management qualification. Foundation Level Firstly, let’s look at the foundation level. These are a good place to start if you have no formal knowledge of environmental management and provide a solid foundation in environmental management. At this level we have the IEMA Foundation Certificate in Environmental Management and the NEBOSH Certificate in Environmental Management (we will call…
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Accountability and Commitment Within Environmental Leadership
Key Elements of Effective Environmental Leadership In this post I thought we could have a look at what makes an effective environmental leader. Whether you are a leader or you aspire to be one or want to assess your current environmental leader hopefully this post will be useful to you! Strong environmental leadership involves the development of the organisations mission, values and vision. It involves two key themes, these are accountability and commitment. As an environmental leader you are the person who is accountable, such that the buck stops with you. Accountability therefore means that you are ultimately responsible for environmental management within the scope of your area of management,…
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Preparing For The NEBOSH Environmental Diploma Exam
Preparing well for the NEBOSH Diploma in Environmental Management exam is essential if you want to do well, so in this post we are going to look at things that you can do to increase the chances of success in the exam and improve your confidence. The exam that you must complete is 3 hours in total and you have a choice of 5 questions out of a total of eight. The pass mark for the exam is 45%. Essentially doing the best you can in an exam is about two key factors: Having a good knowledge of the subject, and Being able to apply your knowledge to an exam…
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ISO 45001 Update
ISO 45001 is a safety management system standard that is meant to be a global replacement for similar standards such as the BS OHSAS 18001 and ILO-OSH 2001. It clearly takes some cues from the ISO 31000, guidelines on risk management. You may wonder why it’s needed given the popularity of OHSAS 18001. In the fast and furious world that is ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation), protocol is followed. An initial draft is produced and published, which is supposed to stimulate public debate. It’s called a DIS (Draft International Standard). And DIS ISO 45001 has been out for a while (since January 2016) and has stimulated debate. Whilst it was…
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Finding Info about The Environment Where You Live or Work
NEBOSH Diploma in Environmental Management Element 7 In this blog post I take a look at the key sources of information that can be accessed to understand the environment in an area. As you might be aware, it is generally a legal requirement for environmental information collected by public bodies to be made available to the public. Pretty much all of this information can be accessed for free on the internet. First we’ll look at the Environment Agency, who operate a site known as ‘what’s in your backyard’. Here you can access a broad range of environment related information covering issues such as flooding, nitrate vulnerable zones, landfill sites and…
