Strategic Expert Groups (SEGs)
Tackling the environmental damage caused by modern societal behaviours – climate change, plastic pollution, resource depletion, biodiversity loss – is going to take collective effort and knowledge.
CIWM members and volunteers have the skills, expertise and passion to help combat these growing challenges. As the professional body for resource and waste managers, it’s our job to help facilitate these solutions, and our new Policy & Innovation Forum and Strategic Expert Groups will play a major role in this mission.
Replacing the previous Scientific and Technical Committee (S&T), the Policy & Innovation Forum will be a champion for CIWM and the work that the industry and our members undertake. It will also provide insight and advice to the Trustee Board and CIWM Policy & Technical Team on the main policy issues affecting members today.
How will the Forum be a champion for CIWM, the industry and members? – Speak to the government and promote effective policy. Speak to government to represent members’ views and promote circular policies to move the world beyond waste.
Why is the insight and advice to the Trustee Board and P&T team important? – Advocate for members and their ideas.
The Forum will also oversee six Strategic Expert Groups (SEGs), which will mobilise the resources and waste sector on its journey to move the world beyond waste. Last year, CIWM formed the Climate Emergency SEG ahead of the other groups due to the importance and urgency of uniting the sector on its journey to net zero.
Led by CIWM members and volunteers, the SEGs will reflect the constantly shifting policy and industry landscapes and work at a broad, strategic level. They offer an opportunity for CIWM to foster the knowledge and insights of its members to give them the tools to make measurable changes.
Knowledge is at the heart of CIWM. We facilitate the sharing of knowledge to ensure members can not only excel in their day-to-day roles but also in their career progression and professional development.
We want SEGs to mobilise the industry to make the most of the opportunities presented by government reforms and build a lasting and resilient sector that can drive real changes and protect and conserve our planet for future generations to come.
Infrastructure, Services and Operation Strategic Expert Group
This Strategic Expert Group (SEG) will be the lead technical group helping CIWM deliver its Policy and Innovation Forum three-year plan. Developing its own working plan to prioritise the drive towards a circular economy and CIWM's strategy of a World beyond Waste.
This group has a broad remit, covering all waste streams from household, commercial, industrial as well as specific streams like litter, construction and demolition waste. Covering collection, transport, handling and treating waste calls for a broad membership for the SEG but hopefully it will also appeal to regulatory, legal and contractual expert members of CIWM.
SEG members will champion infrastructure, services and operations for CIWM, raising CIWM’s profile in relevant circles and communities. Being a member of the SEG presents the opportunity to shape the future of the infrastructure, services and operational aspect of the resources and waste sector.
This SEG held its first meeting in July 2023 and agreed its Terms of Reference.
Climate Emergency Strategic Expert Group
CIWM has announced the formation of a new Climate Emergency Strategic Expert Group to oversee and guide its work on Net Zero.
There are wide ranging opinions regarding potential solutions to tackle climate change, but there is no panacea or single organisation/body that will solve this issue on its own. The effectiveness of CIWM’s Climate Emergency SEG will therefore be judged on its ability to bring together other likeminded organisations and to coordinate actions to provide the necessary scale of response. For waste and resource management in particular, this will involve representation from all types of wastes producers, handlers and facility operators, including, for example, food waste.
The work of the Climate Emergency SEG will be fundamental to the identification of what the sector needs and how best we can serve those needs. The Climate Emergency SEG will act as ‘agents of change’ and challenge and will be the guiding mind behind CIWM’s climate change work, which will one day bear the fruit of moving the world beyond waste.