NEWSFROMTHE


SOCENV ELECTION NEWS Continued from preceding page


or re-elected at the AGMinclude:  Dougal Driver CEnv: Vice Chair Martin Baxter CEnv: Chair of Registration Authority  Dr PeterMatthews CBE HonFSE CEnv: Chair of Remuneration Committee  Vacant: Audit and Risk Assurance Committee  Professor Carolyn Roberts CEnv: Chair of Honorary Fellow Panel  Alan Harper CEnv: Honorary Secretary  Ian Byrne CEnv: Honorary Treasurer The CEO of the Society for the


Environment, Dr EmmaWilcox, has been selected to be a judge for the 2017 Green Gown Awards. Established in 2004, the Green


Gown Awards recognise the exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by


21ST CENTURY PEI INITIATIVE


universities and colleges across the UK and Ireland, and are administered by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC). With sustainabilitymoving up the agenda, the Awards have become established as themost prestigious recognition of best practicewithin the further and higher education sector. Emma commented: “I am


proud to have the opportunity to represent the Society as a judge for awards that recognise innovative sustainability initiativeswithin the education sector. Iwould like to congratulate all of the finalists for their achievements so far – and good luck for the awards!” The Green Gown Awards are


administered by the EAUC and governed by a cross agency steering group.


Chief executives of the Professional Engineering Institutionsmet on the 5May under the umbrella of the 21st Century PEI initiative to hear fromJohn Uff QC, author of UK Engineering 2016, an independent reviewof UK engineering commissioned by the IET, ICE and IMechE. After a briefing fromJohn Uff


an extensive Q&A cut across all themain areas of the report’s recommendations. After he left, talks continued to enable the three commissioning institutions to discusswith the PEI community their observations onwhat the report had delivered against their commissioning expectations andwhat they envisaged happening next. In summary, they are


committed toworking towards five overarching activities and have already startedworking on these topicswith the Royal Academy of Engineering and Engineering UK in particular. They welcomed participation fromother PEIs, however therewas less clarity about howfirmly defined these plans are orwhether there is a real intention of taking these forward as truly collaborative across the PEI community. Equally, therewas no clarity of the other recommendations of the Uff report. To conclude the session, a


surveywas taken to assess the initial level of identificationwith the recommendations advocated by John Uff. These reflected views fromthe CEOs and it is acknowledged that many PEI boards have yet to discuss andmake public their formal reaction to Uff’s recommendations. This survey has also been extended to include those PEIswhich could not attend themeeting. In summary, there is general


agreement that professional engineering needs change.


24 /// Environmental Engineering /// August 2017


However, the notion that only themajor PEIs can bring about that changewas overwhelmingly rejected andwith it, a rejection that themajor PEIs should implement a detailed agenda for delivery of the report’s findings and an equally split viewon adopting the RAEng as a single voice of the profession. A significantmajority agreed


with Uff that PEIs have a duty of care to account for effective spending by Engineering UK and thiswas translated into strong agreement for realigning the schools related activities of RAEng, Eng UK and the PEIs In relation tomembership


NEW SEE SIGN


recommendations, establishing a singlemembership across the PEIs found very little favour and whilst not in amajority, there was a broadly balanced view towards streamlining membership to two licensed grades that would therefore beworthy of further exploration. In general


discussion, the merits of cost- effective back


office functionswere recognised andmightwell be achievable between small clusters of PEIs, however the notion of formalising this across PEIs in the concept envisaged by Uff was significantly rejected. It is unlikely the 21st Century


PEI groupwillmeet again until the autumn to consider the next stages for their collaborative exploration. By then PEI boards will have had opportunity to consider their response to Uff’s recommendations. At the same time, further assessmentswill have taken place on the outputs fromthe energetic and enthusiasticworkshop for some 65 young PEI professionals,who alsomet on 5May, and the mandate theywould like to see their PEIswork towards to create a newprofessional engineering landscape fit for purpose in 2025 and beyond.


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