Contributing to sustainability as an environmental impact assessment practitioner

Weaver, Alex; Pope, Jenny; Morrison‐Saunders, Angus; Lochner, Paul

doi:10.3152/146155108x316423

Cited by 47 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…More recently, Weaver et al (2008) proffer ways in which EIA practitioners can personally push the 'vectors of sustainability' in their day-to-day work. They provide simple but practical examples of how individuals can make a difference to EIA outcomes through pushing the boundaries ever outward towards sustainable development expectations and needs.…”

Section: Pathways To Effective Eiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Appraising the role of relationships between regulators and consultants for effective EIA

Morrison‐Saunders

Bailey²

2009

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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The role of relationships between regulators and consultants engaged in environmental impact assessment (EIA) is explored. A Partnering Agreement between Western Australia regulators and consultants gave rise to a survey and interviews with representatives of these EIA practitioners to understand levels of cooperation between them and ways to improve EIA practice locally. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative responses are presented with an emphasis on practitioner comments reproduced in their own words and 'voice'. The results suggest that while relationships are strained because of staff resources and levels of expertise brought about by a major resource boom in recent years, there is a great desire for cooperation and collaboration.Greater clarification and understanding of each stakeholders' purpose and role in the EIA process along with opportunities for EIA practitioners to interact, communicate and socialise are identified as positive ways forward. The value of establishing the relatively simple Partnering Agreement approach is demonstrated and is put forward as something that practitioners internationally might equally benefit from as a means of improving the effectiveness of EIA practice.1

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Section: Pathways To Effective Eiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Appraising the role of relationships between regulators and consultants for effective EIA

Morrison‐Saunders

Bailey²

2009

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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“…The Keynote Speaker at this conference championed the expression "Do your day job [and do it well]" (Gear, 2011) implying that EIA professionals already have the potential to deliver sustainable development in their normal activities. Similar sentiments have been expressed by Weaver et al (2008) for both South African and international EIA practitioners alike in which case they advocated individuals' "pushing the sustainability vectors on every EIA an individual practitioner works on" and by Gibson et al (2005:188) who concluded their book with the statement: "It is about making the world better, one undertaking at a time".…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 70%

Walking the sustainability assessment talk — Progressing the practice of environmental impact assessment (EIA)

Morrison‐Saunders

Retief

2012

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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Internationally there is a growing demand for environmental impact assessment (EIA) to move away from its traditional focus towards delivering more sustainable outcomes. South Africa is an example of a country where the EIA system seems to have embraced the concept of sustainability. In this paper we test the existing objectives for EIA in South Africa against sustainability principles and then critique the effectiveness of EIA practice in delivering these objectives. The outcome of the research suggests that notwithstanding a strong and explicit sustainability mandate through policy and legislation, the effectiveness of EIA practice falls far short of what is mandated. This shows that further legislative reform is not required to improve effectiveness but rather a focus on changing the behaviour of individual professionals. We conclude by inviting further debate on what exactly practitioners can do to give effect to sustainability in EIA practice.

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“…Further, the social effects of development continue to receive far less attention than biophysical impacts (e.g. Morrison-Saunders & Retief 2012;Franks & Vanclay 2013), and both the definition of SIA success (O'Faircheallaigh 2009) and the capture of complex and dynamic social impacts remain problematic methodologically (Weaver et al 2008). In WA, SIAs are not regulated and are undertaken only as a component of EIAs.…”

Section: Ia Social Licence and Civic Virtuementioning

confidence: 99%

The civic virtue of developmentalism: on the mining industry's political licence to develop Western Australia

Brueckner

Durey

Pforr

et al. 2014

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

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This paper examines the social licence to operate (SLO) of Western Australia's (WA's) mining industry in the context of the state's 'developmentalist' agenda. We draw on the findings of a multi-disciplinary body of new research on the risks and challenges posed byWA's mining industry for environmental, social and economic sustainability. We synthesise the findings of this work against the backdrop of the broader debates on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and resource governance. In light of the data presented, this paper takes issue with the mining sector's SLO and its assessment of social and environmental impacts in WA for three inter-related reasons. A state government ideologically wedded to resource-led growth is seen to offer the resource sector a political licence to operate and to give insufficient attention to its potential social and environmental impacts. As a result, the resource sector can adopt a self-serving CSR agenda built on a limited win -win logic and operate with a 'quasi social licence' that is restricted to mere economic legitimacy. Overall, this paper problematises the politicalcum-commercial construction and neoliberalisation of the SLO and raises questions about the impact of mining in WA.

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Contributing to sustainability as an environmental impact assessment practitioner

Cited by 47 publications

References 9 publications

Appraising the role of relationships between regulators and consultants for effective EIA

Appraising the role of relationships between regulators and consultants for effective EIA

Walking the sustainability assessment talk — Progressing the practice of environmental impact assessment (EIA)

The civic virtue of developmentalism: on the mining industry's political licence to develop Western Australia

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