savills.com

Portsmouth University

Peter Traves, Savills Planning

Environmental Impact Assessment

11.01.2017

Environmental Impact Assessment

Introduction

My role as EIA coordinator

How did that come about?

How does IEMA feature in what I do?

Thoughts on CPD / employment

Savills’ graduate programme

What is Environmental Impact Assessment?

EIA is a process that:

identifies effects that could be avoided, or reduced by design and mitigation; opportunities

for enhancement

commences at the conceptual stage as an iterative process that is used to improve the

design of a project

is used to ensure that the potential significant effects of a proposal are taken into account

by a planning authority when making a decision

A Non-technical Summary enables the public to understand the considerations that have

been taken into account

The EIA process

Source: IEMA 2011

Environmental Statement

EIA is the process, the Environmental Statement (ES) reports the findings of that process:

Baseline conditions > future baseline

Identify sensitive receptors that need to be considered - avoidance / scheme design

Potential effects of the project are predicted - scale and nature of change

Are the effects significant? How is that decided? Air quality / Species / Landscape

Consultation – whilst formulating the project & consideration of the planning application

Waste management including 20MW heat and power plant,

Hirwaun Industrial Estate, Wales

Legal context

EIA is a statutory process governed by UK and European law

The European Union first set out the legal framework for EIA in 1985 – the ‘EIA Directive’

In the UK, EIA is implemented through secondary legislation that links to a number of

development consent regimes

Approximately 65% of EIAs undertaken in the UK relate to applications for planning

permission

EIA Regulations in England, Scotland and Wales

The role of an EIA practitioner

Developer / client

Design team

Assessment team

Legislation / guidance

Planning authority

Consultees

Public

My role

My role

o Advising on best practise, technical aspects of EIA, avoiding pitfalls

o Keeping up to date with case law / legislation changes

o Reviewing EIA screening

o Preparing Environmental Statements

o Leading Savills’ EIA Working Group / overseeing competence within the team

o Maintaining Savills’ EIA Quality Mark with IEMA – presentations and written

articles/practitioner discussions and networking

The route that I took

o BSc Environmental Protection

o Opportunity – a one-off project > EIA > EMS

How does IEMA feature in what we do?

EIA Quality Mark – held at the company level

o Includes an audit of ESs prepared

o Staff interviews

o Contributions to sharing knowledge via

presentations and written articles

Membership for individuals

o EIA practitioner @ progressive levels of

competence

...and for others in Savills

o Environmental Management System (EMS)

ISO14001

o Sustainability advice and energy

management in property / development

Best practice guidance

Thoughts on CPD / employment

Acquiring an understanding of how your area of interest functions

o Planning Practice Guidance [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-practice-guidance]

o House of Commons research briefings [http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/]

o Royal Town Planning Institute / Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

o IEMA

Read job descriptions / career pathway guides

Maintain your CPD / training log

Build a network of contacts

Savills

Insight – for first year students

Summer school - 2nd year students

Graduate programme open to final

year applicants:

o Ranked the property industry's

number 1 employer by The

Times for the ninth consecutive

year

o 40% of the main board joined as

graduate trainees

membership of the Royal

Institution of Chartered Surveyors

(RICS) or Royal Town Planning

Institute (RTPI) attained by

completing the assessment of

professional competence (APC)

http://graduate.savills.co.uk/introducing-savills/