The purpose of this intermediate-level course is to provide participants with practical skills in the development and implementation of sustainability assessment processes, as well as insights into recent research that is shaping sustainability assessment practice now and into the future.
Sustainability assessment, broadly defined, is a process for directing decision-making towards sustainability. While sustainability assessment can be applied in many different contexts by different types of decision-makers, this course will focus on forms of sustainability assessment that are aligned with ex ante impact assessment principles and practices. It is therefore of relevance to regulators, proponents, government agencies, consultants, and anyone interested in aligning planning and decision-making with sustainability.

This course features short lectures (conceptual and case study-based) interspersed with open discussions and individual and small-group activities.
Content and learning outcomes. Participants will develop an understanding of:

• Different understandings of sustainability and how they are reflected in sustainability assessment practice internationally
• How sustainability assessment relates to other forms of impact assessment
• How to develop and implement context-specific sustainability assessment processes
• Challenges in sustainability assessment and how to address them in practice
• Emerging methods and tools for sustainability assessment
• The state of the art and future directions for sustainability assessment

 

Level:	Intermediate
Prerequisites:	Participants are expected to have an understanding of IA processes and terminology. Hence it would be beneficial if they previously have attended an introductory IAIA training course (e.g., "Understanding Impact Assessment") or otherwise have at least a year of work experience as a consultant, proponent or regulator within an IA system, or be a student with at least 6 months taught or research experience of some aspect of IA. A particular interest in sustainability assessment is desirable.
Language:	English
Duration:	2 days (14-15 May)
Price:	US$475
Min/Max:	10-60
Instructor(s):	Angus Morrison-Saunders, Associate Professor in Environmental Assessment, Murdoch University (Australia) Jenny Pope, Director, Integral Sustainability (Australia) Alan Bond, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management, University of East Anglia (UK)
Special Note:	Participants should bring their own laptop computer if they wish to access the materials provided during the course. Otherwise the materials can be emailed to participants after the course.

 

Professor Angus Morrison-Saunders is Associate Professor in Environmental Impact Assessment at Murdoch University, Western Australia where he has been teaching and researching in the field of impact assessment for more than 20 years. He also holds positions at the University of Cambridge, UK, and North-West University, South Africa, and is regularly invited to universities around the world as a visiting scholar. Angus has over 100 publications in impact assessment, and his areas of expertise include sustainability assessment and impact assessment follow-up. He has been an active member of IAIA since 1996 and was co-editor of IAPA from 2009-2014.
Each year from 2005–2014 he has conducted a two-day Environmental Assessment for Practitioners training course on behalf of the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority Service Unit and the Environmental Consultants Association (Inc.) – the repeated invitation to run this course once or twice yearly is testament to its successful and effective delivery. This course includes important content relating to sustainability assessment.
Dr. Jenny Pope is Director of Western Australian consulting firm Integral Sustainability, which provides consultancy and training services to industry and government on the integration of sustainability concepts into decision-making processes. Jenny is also a respected researcher in the field of sustainability assessment, with more than 20 publications in this area, many of which draw on her experience as a sustainability assessment practitioner. She holds academic positions at the University of Cambridge, UK, and North-West University, South Africa, where she teaches environmental management and sustainability leadership. She has been an active member of IAIA since 2003.
She has worked for a wide range of clients, specializing in public infrastructure delivery and the oil and gas sector, with recent clients including Shell Australia, Woodside Energy Limited, the Water Corporation of Western Australia, Western Power, Gold Coast Water, Woodside Energy Limited, the City of South Perth, and the Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC).
Professor Alan Bond has been teaching environmental impact assessment at university since 1992, first at Aberystwyth University, and now at the University of East Anglia in the UK, and also has extensive experience in developing and presenting professional training courses on impact assessment. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Impact Assessment Review since January 2015. He has published numerous journal articles on aspects of impact assessment including EIA and health impact assessment, with many specifically on sustainability assessment, and has co-edited two text books on the topic. Alan has been an active member of IAIA since 1995.

He has regularly provided professional training for local authority planners in the United Kingdom, most recently two one-day courses on environmental impact assessment in 2014. He has co-delivered a workshop on “Environmental Impact Assessment for Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations” on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, in Ispra, Italy, 1-5 September 2014, and other courses offered for IAIA annual conferences.