Shortlisted! CIEEM Small Consultancy of the Year Awards

The four award criteria were delivery of high-quality practical outcomes that benefit business and the economy as well as nature and/or people’s connection with nature, Evidence of sharing learning and good practice, Commitment to undertaking CPD / Supporting the professional development of staff and Promotion of the profession.

We were able to provide evidence and testimonials from clients to demonstrate the high quality practical outcomes from our work, showcasing projects where we are working hard to achieve peoples connection with nature. These align with our simple philosophy, designing with nature in mind supports the long-term health and wellbeing of us all. We work with developers who share this philosophy design beautiful and profitable developments.

As a company we champion shared learning and 2018 saw the launch of our event series ‘The Ecology Briefing’. The quarterly events are focused on the shared learning and best practice as well as the promotion of the profession through the provision of a platform for learning and networking. Each event features a keynote speaker, Q&A session and informal networking. They have proved hugely popular so far, and we are looking forward to the 2019 series.

As a small team of dedicated ecologists, we have nurtured a culture of continual improvement. We assign four hours a month, split across two fortnightly sessions, to professional development for the team. Partnering with local schools and colleges, we have committed to providing at least one placement per year. Our work experience programme has been devised by the team to give a rounded insight into the working life of a professional ecologist and we offer our students the opportunity to spend time speaking with clients, discussing project briefs, planning surveys, attending site visits and creating reports.

Promotion of the profession is key to our practice. We have developed a strong online presence, regularly posting articles and industry insights on our website and social media as a way of engaging related professions and the public in our work and developments in the field. We also produced an Ecology/RIBA work stages guide to assist our clients in understanding when it is necessary to gain our input to ensure the best outcomes for projects. We encourage architects and developers to consider ecology from the earliest opportunity (during briefings, marketing, personal contact and by developing strong healthy relationships with clients). We also actively seek to be included in design team meetings throughout the development of designs up until planning submission so that ecology considerations are seamlessly integrated into design.

We are now all looking forward to the Awards ceremony to be held in London on June 27^th 2019 and I wish the other consultancies who have been shortlisted the very best of luck. We’ll see you there!