Allen and York Specialist Recruitment

Our New Blog

2011-01-11T01:58:00.000-08:00

Our Blog has Moved...

Please follow this link to be directed to our new up to date blog:
http://allenandyork.wordpress.com/

Our new blog includes the latest news from Allen & York and the sustainabilty industry, plus job information.

Making Health and Safety Work for You - Risk Assessment

2010-07-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Continuing our series of Health and Safety articles by Rod Trippier; this is the first of two exploring Risk Assessment.

Mention risk assessment and the majority of those present will cringe; I’m speaking generally, and not about intrinsically safe enterprises that use far more robust models and methods than are describe here to safeguard there operational and commercial interests, although the principles are exactly the same.

I’ve used that word again; commercial. Health and Safety is commercial, as we said before, its not only about focussing on the people issues, it also includes the design of buildings and structures, the layout of the work-places in and around them, and the plant, equipment and tools used in that work-place by them. Because by getting this right first most of the hazards with the potential to harm people would have been eliminated or reduced to a lower order before the people concerned even got to work in the facility.

Some of you may have been involved with the selection of manufacturing plant; although CE marked, it doesn’t mean to say its fit for your purpose. Yes it complies with current regulation, but as designed will it work for you; often the answer is no. Unless designed specifically to suit how you operate and maintain the plant, particularly during planned shuts, guarding can be a nightmare. Not only can it encourage people to take short cuts, but valuable time can be wasted removing and replacing the guard if fixings and fixing points are inappropriate. And sometimes because its too troublesome, fixings don’t necessarily get put back correctly which can defeat the original function.

This is where the risk assessment comes into its own. An example involving £20M worth of new plant from a few years back springs to mind, this featured isolation mechanisms, interlocks and physical guards. The risk assessment carried out by operational staff identified design failures in a number of areas. When controls were put in place they made the plant safer to operate and reduced maintenance down time, giving an annual pay-back of £25,000.00 from a capital outlay of less than £2,000.00.

Risk assessment, how do we do it?

Well here is the dilemma, as we’re interested in reducing or eliminating significant risk how do we know what significant risk is until we’ve assed it? And this is where I think most of us come unstuck; the amount of time and effort that we think is required looks daunting. But look at it another way, if something did go seriously wrong for the want of a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, the cost, just in terms of time and effort alone would have been a lot more than it would if we’d done the assessment and put in the controls in the first place.

Firstly only select people for your risk assessment teams who are experienced in your business sector, and who have been with you a few years and who know how your organisation functions. And don’t make the mistake thinking that everybody can do a risk assessment without adequate training; they can’t. Risk assessment teams need to be trained in basic techniques; and by someone who is a trained risk assessor. In other words, carry out an assessment first, ensuring that the person you select to undertake the training has the skills and abilities you require.

A risk assessment is an estimation of the people carrying the assessment at that time. The HSE even make the point that a risk assessment team in the same sector, but working for different employers could have a different view on common hazards. I worked with a client team a few years ago, and one of the members insisted that every task they assessed could result in death, the rest of the team members fortunately disagreed. That’s why a risk assessment team should consist of not less than two people who are trained and sufficiently experienced within that sector to discuss the issues and take a realistic and balanced view. If you appoint an untrained team to carry out your risk assessments, as likely as not, either through ignorance or unfamiliarity or both, they will recommend inappropriate control measures.

In HSG 65, it says that it may make life easier if we carry out an initial assessment first, to be honest, it doesn’t just help, so far as I’m concerned it’s essential. By involving operational personnel in this initial assessment process they’ll use their knowledge to say what’s risky in their field because they’ve just as likely as not worked around some of those risks in the past. And this is the danger, becoming accustomed and complacent to risk and accepting it as the norm, this is in itself is a significant risk to the business. But we can cut through any complacency by assembling a team comprising experienced operational personnel to sit round a table and carry out an initial assessment, together with someone from Line Management to act as the “Chair” and give direction.

This can be done in an informal atmosphere, brain storming the issues and getting the team to write down all those things they believe to be a significant risk; it will pay dividends in terms of time saved. Then, all they have to do is run down the list, and review it one last time to make sure everybody agrees which should go forward for team assessment, and when, and in what order of priority. An initial assessment will be very close to the mark, just by the very nature of how it was achieved. Plus, it will only have taken a few people perhaps no more than a day to accomplish. Everybody will have enjoyed themselves (hopefully), getting away from the “day job”; with tea, coffee and biscuits thrown in, plus a free lunch; maybe.

Having prioritised the list and planned the assessment programme all we have to do is nominate trained teams, and if people aren’t trained, train them. Carry out the nominated risk assessments, evaluate if existing controls are adequate or not. If not, agree and record findings and recommend additional controls required to eliminate or reduce the hazards to a lower order, and implement. Then re-assess the controls to make sure they achieve their intended objective; it doesn’t have to be a separate function, it can be done as you work through each assessment. Again, it’s whatever suits you, but to get accuracy you must re-assess at some time during the process. It’s achieving the required standard that matters, not how you do it. Once agreed, prioritise the control implementation programme, not forgetting to consider what’s “reasonably practicable” to achieve.
Doing the risk assessment is only the start; it’s putting the controls in place that helps square the circle. A control measure can be doing something differently; and it can be keeping somebody “safe by position”. That is, preventing people from making contact with dangerous parts of a machine, perhaps by caging them in, this means you don’t have to put a belt and braces physical barrier round the hazard when its operating. In some industries this is achieved with light beams, but do your research first if this is a potential option for you, because systems can fail, particularly electronic guarding systems, so they must be robus, and designed to “fail to safety”.

My back-ground was originally paper making, and a few years ago whilst working in Finland I witnessed the ultimate guarding system. A white line painted down the whole length of the process floor five of six metres from the paper machine; if any anybody walked across that white line when the machine was running they would be dismissed instantly, and visitors would be escorted from the premises, never to return.

When it comes to carrying out risk assessment, some devotees prefer to assess likelihood and severity as a qualitative value, (high medium low), and others as a quantitative value (on a scale, say of 1 to 5, or 1 to 10). My personal preference is quantitative assessment because it is a much more objective and accurate way for a risk assessment team to reach a balanced judgement. But it all depends what people are used to; if whatever you do is fit for purpose and it complies with current regulation and guidance; do it.

In the next article we’ll discuss the practicalities of the risk assessment process, together with a worked example.

Useful reference materials;

Successful Health and Safety Management HSG 65 2nd Edition HSE Books 2000 ISBN 0 7176 1276 7
INDG163 (Rev 2) 5 Steps to Risk Assessment; free down-load from the HSE web-site
Essentials of Health and Safety at Work (Fourth edition) HSE Books 2006 ISBN 0 7176 6179 2
HSE web site; http://www.hse.gov.uk/
Allen & York Health and Safety Recruitment http://www.allen-york.com/

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of Allen & York.

Risk Management & The Sub-Contractor - by Rod Trippier

2010-05-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

CONTINUING THE SERIES OF ARTICLES
WRITTEN FOR ALLEN & YORK
BY - ROD TRIPPIER (FREELANCE - HEALTH & SAFETY ADVISER) - Thank you to Rod for his insight and experience into the world of Health & Safety.

Recently we’ve been discussing the management of risk. So it’s disappointing when the senior executive of a company appears to publicly demonstrate a lack of understanding regarding the safeguards required to manage sub-contracted works.

Especially when the employing company is a global player in a high risk business, where one slip can create major consequences involving personal injury, death, negative commercial outcomes and ecological disaster.

When considering the employment of sub-contract companies, it is incumbent upon the employer, whether client or contractor, to carry out a thorough appraisal of the competence relating to any enterprise sub-contracted to carry out work.

It is essential to ensure that they have the necessary skills, ability and processes to manage work safely. This involves an investigative process to examine internal processes, technologies, competences of managerial and operational personnel, and the finances to deliver.

Following a fire and the death of eleven people, one senior executive was quoted in the press recently as saying, “This was not our accident. This was not our equipment. It was not our people, our systems or our processes this was “X” company’s; their systems, their people and their equipment”.

Maybe, but it is not sufficient for the employer to abdicate responsibility by blaming the sub-contractor when something subsequently goes wrong. Regardless of the contract, the management of health and safety is a joint responsibility led by the employing company.

The question is, would you allow a sub-contract enterprise to dictate the safety standards on your premises, or on one of your projects that if it went wrong, it had the potential to kill some body, potentially putting the CEO and possibly the Board in jail on a corporate manslaughter charge, jeopardising the company’s future and financial standing, and creating an ecological disaster, leaving your company to pick up the pieces?

In Summary..............

Even though a sub-contract enterprise has a duty of care, the appointment of that enterprise does not absolve the employing company of its duty under health and safety law. The employer still has considerable control over any contract, and must ensure that health and safety matters are adequately managed so as to prevent danger.

The employer and the sub-contractor must take joint responsibility for the management of health and safety prior to and during the work, agreeing suitable and sufficient control measures.

These may include, but will not be limited to;

Scope of Works
Risk Assessment
Te use of Method Statements
Standard Operating Procedures
Safe systems of Work
Isolation and Locking Off procedures
Compliance monitoring
Accident and incident reporting
Health surveillance

........ and in some instances carried out jointly.

For construction works under CDM 2007 the duties imposed on the client, the contractor, and any sub-contractor are more specific.

What do you think? We'd love to hear your comments

(The views expressed in this article, are not necessarily those held by Allen & York)

ASHES TO DASHES - by Rod Trippier

2010-04-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Far be it from me to say, “I told you so”, as the recriminations and fallout from the fall out begin.

But did anybody think to carryout a risk assessment before knee jerking the world’s airlines and passengers into panic and not inconsiderable inconvenience, and commercial and personal cost.

First rule of the health and safety professional ; if it’s conceivable that something hazardous can occur, you have to assume it will, and act accordingly.

Therefore, as volcanoes erupt throughout the world on a regular basis, and funnily enough, emitting clouds of fine ash into the sky, did anybody think to develop a disaster plan using existing data for this extant volcano? It seems not.

And was Willie Walsh right to take the initiative, galvanize the CAA and others from their slumbers, he certainly was. As mentioned in my earlier article, health and safety is commercial; an intrinsic part of any successful business, not just a bolt-on.

So what went wrong?
First question; who carried out the risk assessment before taking the “no-fly decision”, and where is that vital document now? Was a risk assessment carried out, and if not why not? If it was, was immediate reference made to existing data, if not, why not? Was there any existing data, and if not why not? Was any existing data up to date? Was reference made to the disaster plan,…………. I could go on, but by now you’ve got point.

But I know what you’re thinking; it’s easy to be wise after the event, maybe. But it’s smarter to be wise before the event, and that’s just as easy.

It’s all neatly written down for us in the HSE’s 5 Steps to Risk Assessment; I wonder how many steps

were taken by the authorities that shut down our skies, or were their heads in the clouds?

How would you have managed the incident?

PASSIONATE ABOUT HEALTH & SAFETY

2010-04-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF ARTICLES
WRITTEN FOR ALLEN & YORK
BY - ROD TRIPPIER (FREELANCE - HEALTH & SAFETY ADVISER) - The views expressed in this article, are not necessarily those held by Allen & York.

Each of Rod's articles will contain his opinions, anecdotes observations, topical tips and useful references from the world of Health and Safety. And we would like to you to join the discussions and give us your views on the HSE industry.

SO, WHAT IS HEALTH & SAFETY?

Basically it’s human and asset management; with the emphasis on asset. Not because asset safety is more important than human safety. It’s just that if we get the work-place, plant machinery and equipment controls in place, we help remove or reduce a high proportion of the inherent significant risks, leaving us to concentrate on the people risks, i.e., the silly things that are done in the work-place; driving plant on a construction site whilst using a mobile ‘phone springs to mind.

If we were to look at the people issues first we’d be in danger of muddying the waters by mixing work-place and task risks with people risks, struggling to develop “one size fits all” controls, it doesn’t work.

WHAT IS THE JOB OF A HEALTH & SAFETY PROFESSIONAL?

So, as Health & Safety professionals it’s our job to help make a positive contribution to profitability. Do I hear howls of disagreement? Profit from Health & Safety I hear you say, we’re only here to stop accidents. No we’re not, it’s our function to help make the job run safer, smoother, and more profitably; protecting our executives, managers and operatives, and others, often from themselves. Not forgetting the guy who breaks into our premises, falls down an uncovered and unguarded inspection chamber, fractures a leg, and who might successfully claim for negligence.

That’s why a good Health & Safety professional needs to know his/her industry well, and to make valued judgements based on experience of the process, and the business, giving advice and support to all sectors of the enterprise, and to look for ways of solving and resolving Health, Safety and Environmental issues whilst keeping the job going. In this respect, “Reasonably Practicable” is a very powerful tool, it can help us make some very wise decisions, and without the need to issue Red Cards or “Stop Notices” at the first hint of a non-compliance.

RECENT CASE STUDY

On a recent construction project for a very large retailer, the P.C. constructed a temporary stair-case from scaffolding, facilitating access to the first floor whilst dismantling the existing stair-case. Approximately two hours after completion, the P.C’s own health and safety advisor taped off the stairs; didn’t use barriers, just tape, and then stuck condemned stickers in prominent places and walked off, threatening to “Red Card” anybody who dared to use it. Did he involve and consult, and did he say what the issues were? No. This is a poor example of how to implement robust control measures, and a not an untypical example of why Health and Safety gets such a bad press.

So what were the issues? No edge protection. Could this have presented a significant hazard? Unlikely given that the installation was not being worked off and therefore with little risk of tools or materials falling. Might the landing platform be worked off today, or later? Yes, some electrical containment was planned for fitting to an adjacent wall some time later in the week.

Solution; assuming the scaffolders to be off site, have a quick chat to the “chippy”, or to one of “the lads”, to see if there were any spare scaffold planks, quickly fixing them in place. Then, contact the Supervisor, and agree and plan a permanent solution, setting a “reasonable”, achievable time scale for completion. So, by making a “sensible decision” guided by regulation, e.g., a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, and the non-compliance rectified in a “reasonably practicable” time scale. The stair-case did not have to be taken out of service; everybody happy and job done, not forgetting to file the risk assessment, and update the SHE Advisor’s personal daily log.

IT'S NOT ALL CONKERS AND GOGGLES

Health and Safety can also get a bad name because of “knee jerk” reactions from apparently untrained people who rather than making an informed decision, it seems, will make one without consultation with a Health and Safety advisor, or if it was, possibly the H & S advisor got over-ruled. Conkers and goggles spring to mind, or councils that ban hanging baskets where previously hanging baskets had hung for decades without incident. And to see members of the Time Team walking round fields digging up artefacts whilst wearing hard hats at jaunty angles, makes one wonder just how many blocks of frozen urine fall from passing aircraft.

The point is, we are all exposed to risk every day of the week, and we’ve all, well almost all, experienced the consequences. But, if you look back, and be honest; we usually didn’t do something we should have done, or did something we shouldn’t.

ASSESS THE 'SIGNIFICANT' RISK

The HSE make the point very strongly; where there are people, there will always be risk. So what is it we are trying to achieve when it comes to managing risk; do we strive to eliminate all risks? No, we’re actually setting out to eliminate, or reduce only the significant ones. And a brief read of RIDDOR will provide the answers, detailing the categories that quantify the word “significant”.

What else can we look at to determine significant risk? Related industry statistics, yes; frequency of different incident types, yes; HSE accident statistics, yes; in-house records, yes. But don’t use data that doesn’t apply to your sector.

There are many people who believe there is no such thing as an accident, simply that it’s a number of un-planned events coming together simultaneously; emphasis on the word un-planned. Therefore, if it is likely that a process can fail, or a person can get harmed, or a piece of plant/machinery/asset can get damaged, it’s our job, to try and prevent it by being our employer’s/client’s conscience.

Therefore, preventing people from getting harmed is not just the preserve of health and safety professionals. Preventing harm is a management function, resulting from tasks and processes being carried out correctly and to time. Good health and safety is achieved through good management systems, processes and practices; and as it happens, it’s also the way to help achieve improved productivity and profitability.

To be a good health and safety professional we have to get involved with the work-force; talk to people, find out what the issues are, and help get them resolved quickly, keeping people “in the frame”, especially if progress is slow. Not only do we have to understand regulation, and be able to apply it effectively, we also have to understand our industry or sector, and be able to empathise with it, and the people who work in it, and be all things to all people at all times, and that includes the HSE/EHO.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

Here’s your “Must Do” for tomorrow;

If you don’t know who your local HMFI or EHO is, get on the ‘phone, introduce yourself, get him or her round for a chat, and find out what their issues are.
If you haven’t already done so before, organise a half day training session with your HMFI/EHO as speaker, and invite directors and senior managers to hear what the HSE are majoring in on. You’ll be surprised how quickly attitudes change, particularly if Corporate Manslaughter is discussed.

It’s not the knowing that brings success; it’s the understanding, the application, and the passion.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? ............Please POST A COMMENT

2010-04-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

SPECIALIST SUSTAINABILITY RECRUITMENT IN AUSTRALIA
Leading International Sustainability Recruitment Specialists - Allen & York announce the opening of their new offices in Melbourne, Australia, March 2010.

Allen & York, a UK based company, are specialist recruiters in the Natural and Built Environment, Energy, Engineering, Waste and Health & Safety sectors – having successfully recruited for 17 years for global corporations and consultancies from the UK and further a-field, they have now extend operations to include offices on-site in Melbourne, Australia.

Much success was seen in global business during 2008/09 which has lead to the opening of the first Allen & York office in Australia, their aim to be located nearer to their clients and thereby offer a more responsive and comprehensive service. The main areas of focus are; Waste Management, Environmental Consultancies, Engineering, Energy, Mining and Construction. As well as supporting the wider Sustainability industry as it grows and develops.

“Our international focus has seen our operations move into Australia, Middle East, Europe, Asia and South Africa which is why we feel that it is the right time to spread our expertise to help our clients on the ground with all their recruitment needs and career aspirations. Given the industry that we are in, it is important for us to be forward-focussed, with strong ambitions, amongst which is to maintain our growth and expand our recruitment offices to closely support our clients around the world.” Mark Allen, Managing Director at Allen & York

This is an exciting development for Allen & York, and will make a huge difference to supporting our Sustainabiltiy Clients throughout Australia and Asia Pacific, who include: CH2M Hill, SKM, ERM, AECOM, RPS, Coffey International, Parsons Brinckerhoff and SMEC. The new base also gives them the opportunity to expand relationships with current global corporate clients such as; BP, HSBC, DHL, ERM and Amazon. Allen & York are delighted to be able to offer a full service, to respond quickly to client’s requirements and met face-to-face, without the aid of video conferencing.

Anticipated areas of growth within the global sustainability sector include; Renewable Energy, Low Carbon & CleanTech, Geotechnical Engineering, Sustainable Infrastructure Planning, EIAs and EMS – and Allen & York are there to support Recruitment requirements & HR strategies at all levels from CEO to Junior Graduate.

All the indications from world leaders, within both politics and commerce, are that the world is moving towards a more sustainable future. The UK government predicts that meeting targets within Energy and Climate Change could provide up to half a million jobs in the renewable energy sector alone by 2020.

The Middle East has made substantial new investment within sustainable infrastructure developments in terms of roads, power and water and recently, Allen & York have been instrumental in helping the Abu Dhabi authorities to develop their sustainable capabilities.
They anticipate that within the near future

Allen & York will be expanding sustainable recruitment operations within the area and look forward to working more closely with clients in the Middle East to grow and enhance their current skill-sets and improve the standards of environmental management across the UAE;
Business Manager, Joe Heppenstall confirms their stance: “our aim is not simply to lead in the provision of technical recruitment solutions within the sustainability market - but also to deliver the same quality wherever that market exists.”

As Allen & York grow internationally there are more and more opportunities for connecting individuals and businesses within the sustainable sector at a global level. Their network is extensive and ever growing, which means that there are not only attractive opportunities for employees to travel and work in different countries around the globe, but there are also opportunities for employers to source the best international talent for their businesses.

Allen & York’s offices in Australia are buzzing and they are already looking to expand their environmental recruitment teams with local talent. The ambition is to match their UK reputation for services and delivery, to be the World’s Leading Recruitment Company for the Sustainability Sector.

http://www.allen-york.com/

UK - 0844 371 8986

INT - +44 (0)1202 888 986

AUS - +61 (0) 39823 6294

The Virtual Leaf & the Art of Sustainable Living

2010-01-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

At the end of 2009 I was fortunate enough to attend the Seacourt Seminar - 'Sustainability....Moving Forwards'. The seminar promised to look at exciting new movements in sustainable practices, from energy and investments to communications and zero-waste.

Seacourt are a "naturally responsible" print company, who have worked their way to being virtually 100% zero waste over the last 40+ years. As the primary person responsible for moving Allen & York towards being a fully sustainable company, I am always looking for new innovative ideas on how we can reduce, recycle and reuse more of our waste.

The speakers featured David Kidney MP from the Department of Climate Change & Energy, Peter Maddox from WRAP, Stile Jensen from Radley Yeldar (an award winning business communications expert) and Jim Dinnage, the MD of Seacourt - however without a shadow of a doubt the highlight of the day was Professor Jim Barber from Imperial College who expounded the innovative process of creating a bio-fuel using the the 'Artificial Leaf' theory.

Professor Barber is an expert in photovoltaic science and in his lecture to the Seacourt audience he explained the method of 'creating' energy as a leaf would in nature, similar to the process of photosynthesis, in order to produce a renewable source of energy. The process would involve the splitting of Water (H2O) into Oxygen and Hydrogen - the hydrogen then being turned into bio-fuel and the water a harmless bi-product.

According to Professor Barber, if artificial photosynthesis systems could use around 10 per cent of the sunlight falling on them, they would only need to cover 0.16 per cent of the Earth’s surface to satisfy a global energy consumption rate of 20 terawatts, the amount it is predicted that the world will need in 2030.

The main issue is not whether the 'theory' is possible, as it has been proven to work, but rather at there has been a lack of investment given to the development to enable this type of bio-fuel to be produced on a mass scale.

Professor Barber pointed out that the future is not nuclear (you would need to build a nuclear power station every week for the next 10 years to supply the world's energy supply) but instead it could be a truly sustainable solution, such as extracting hydrogen from water!

Professor Barber left us with the Jules Verne quote "I foresee that in the future, water will be used as fuel... water will be the coal of the future." - who would have thought that a 19th Century French science fiction writer would become such a visionary.

For more information about Professor Barber & 'The Artificial Leaf' please visit http://www.bio.imperial.ac.uk/research/barber/people/jbarber.html

Guardian Careers Talk: Environmental Careers

2009-11-26T03:37:00.000-08:00

This week our Business Manager, Joe Heppenstall was delighted to join the Guardian Careers panel to share his views on the current status of the Environmental Careers Market.

Listen to the PodCast

If you'd like to find out more about Allen & York please visit our website for the latest Job Opportunities across the whole Sustainability Careers Sector, including; Renewables, Climate Change, Environmental Management, Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ), Natural and Built Environment, Environmental Engineering and Waste & Recycling.

We are experts in our field and are happy to discuss career oppportunities and recruitment requirements.

T: 0844 371 8986

W: www.allen-york.com

2009-11-13T06:46:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since our last posting, but hopefully it will have been worth the wait!

NOW AVAILABLE
Environmental Careers & Salary Survey 2009
from Allen & York and Environment Analyst.

Allen & York experts in Sustainable Recruitment, have come together with Environment Analyst market intelligence specialists, to produce the UK’s most comprehensive Environmental Careers & Salary Survey.

2,500 UK Environmental Professionals completed an online survey including questions relating to:

career satisfaction
future prospects
changing jobs
coping with the economic downturn

At the same time a cross-section of Allen & York candidates (22,000 individual records) were analysed with reference to;

salaries
regional trends
length of service
gender differences and other aspects of their jobs

The results are available at two levels.

Employees' edition: for topline results and trends.
Download this report FREE of charge

Employers' edition**: detailed results & data for Business Managers.
Order FULL Report

The Full Report - Employers' Edition contains extensive information from the online survey and the analysis of Allen & York’s candidate data, including:

Find out more about Environmental Careers & Salary Survey 2009

2009-08-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

400,000 ENVIRONMENTAL JOBS 2015

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) is currently conducting an inquiry into the prospects for green jobs and policies aimed at increasing employment in environmental industries. It will consider how the UK can maximise the environmentally positive opportunities arising from changes in public spending and how this might help with employment during the recession.

The report will also examine other areas, including barriers to creating green jobs and analyse where the gaps are in the skills base for the UK environmental industries. Interestingly Tim Yeo - Chairman of the EAC, has called for the government to lead by example and do more to achieve its own environmental targets. He told the BBC;

"If the government expects everybody else to be getting greener, it's important that it should lead from the front. It is missing its own target for cutting carbon emissions from the government's own offices, it's using less renewable energy, not more, and its recycling rate is falling, not rising." 5th August 2009

The EAC inquiry comes hot-on-the-heels of the publication of the report ‘Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World’ funded by the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) . This year Allen & York were delighted to be recognised as one of the first 100 participants of the UNEP - Climate Neutral Network (CN Net) and therefore took great interest in this recent report which is looking at green careers across the globe.
The UNEP report predicts that there will be a significant rise in ‘green jobs’ particularly within the Energy industry. This will come from a shift in public spending from fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) to renewable energy sources (wind, solar and geothermal power), and that the 1 million people already working in biofuels, could rise by 12 million by 2030.

New jobs could also result, (the report suggests) from the expansion of recycling and environmental engineering (e.g. engineering new eco-vehicles). Wales as an example has proposed targets to see 70% of domestic & municipal waste and 90% of construction waste recycled by 2025.

Jane Davidson (Environment, Sustainability and Housing Minster – Welsh Assembly) said she was keen to get Wales living within its resources and pioneer sustainability in the UK; “There are tremendous opportunities to save money and create high quality industry in Wales by using the valuable material resources contained in waste."

What does this mean in terms of actual numbers of jobs? Well Ed Miliband, (UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change) predicts that the environmental industries across Britain could generate an extra 400,000 jobs by 2015 and the UNEP report predicts that the manufacture, installation and maintenance of solar panels alone, will be such a booming industry that it will generate 6.3 million more jobs worldwide by 2030.

These are all large, optimistic numbers and some might say (including Tim Yeo maybe?) that we will have to move a lot faster to reach these ambitious targets. However, what is does show is another global commitment to move the world towards a greener, more sustainable society and that can only mean the creation of more green jobs.

As leaders in Environmental Recruitment – Allen & York were asked by the Independent Newspaper this month to give their opinion on the growth of environmental recruitment and the prospects of career changers looking at moving into this industry.

The biggest area here, Allen & York suggest, is people with generic project management skills, picked up in another industry, such as construction, for example or sometimes individuals with experience of a specific business role prove to have easily transferable skills. Allen & York managed a move recently for a telecommunications firm employee, whose role was buying land for new masts. He moved to a role buying land to site wind turbines.

Other upcoming areas where strong project management and commercial skills will enable a shift toward the green agenda are the Carbon Reduction Commitment or CRCs that come into force in April 2010. There are certainly insufficient skills in the market to ensure that all businesses hit their “commitment” effectively so solid project managers from all sorts of backgrounds are being lined-up within firms to manage the carbon reductions, if not to set the policy and actions at the outset. During the downturn this affords some businesses a fresh area in which to house those redundant from other sectors. As things pick up however, we will see this trend extend in to the recruitment of project delivery teams from a wealth of differing fields.

Another good example of where transferable skills can be used is in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a growth area for many companies. CSR spans all levels, from the Board to Junior roles and often begins within Marketing and PR teams. However, when taken on properly by a company it becomes part of the business and drives every day activity. Often skills will be acquired ‘on the job’, and people who initially have minimal environmental training may find themselves obtaining further qualifications to enhance their newly found skills. The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) is a good place to find introductory training courses.

As we approach the Copenhagen summit to find a successor to the Kyoto agreement, and as more environmental pledges are made by global governments, we need to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to deliver on the targets. Allen & York anticipate a surge in Environmental job opportunities over the next few years and look forward to supporting existing environmental experts, as well as career changers looking to start a new ‘green career’.

Renewable Energy Electricity Supergrid

2009-07-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

WHAT IS THE SUPERGRID?

This month the G8 Summit agreed the first steps towards a significant global strategy on climate change by agreeing that global warming temperatures should not exceed 2C of 1900 levels and that member nations will work towards an 80% reduction of green house gas emissions by 2050. The USA has taken a major step-change in its attitude towards the climate and President Obama who chaired the discussion stressed that the issue of climate change could no longer be ignored and that we should look towards December and Copenhagen.

This is positive news for the environment and energy industry. It shows a real commitment at last, by the world’s most powerful nations to act to arrest global warming and this commitment can only add to the industry’s growth. But how are we going to supply the world with renewable energy?

When Dr. Czisch first published his ideas outlining a European "Supergrid" a few years ago, in which he explored a concept to supply the continent’s electricity demands by using only the renewable energy technologies that are now available, the world didn't take much notice.

However now, European policy-makers, as well as the global business community, are gradually taking note of the significance of his ideas.

Mark Vidler, Energy Group Manager at Allen & York Environmental Recruitment took the opportunity to speak to Dr Czisch on a recent visit to the UK:

Mark Vidler - What is the Supergrid and why is it important to us?

Gregor Czisch - We are faced with the fact that Renewables are not steadily producing; there are fluctuations depending on where you are in the world, what the climate is, whether it is summer or winter for example. In the longer term we need steady, smooth production of energy which can be employed to cover the demand at any time. In order to achieve this to best effect it is important to expand the range of energy sources, to have a strong mix of climate zones and to expand the km2 of land for wind and solar energy. In summary the creation of a Supergrid, a place where ‘the world’ could feed its renewable energy into, would solve the problems of source intermittency and smooth out the production to a consistently high level.

MV - Who will be the main beneficiaries?

GC - The main beneficiary is the climate, because the Electricity sector is currently emitting about 50% of the world’s carbon emissions from fossil fuels. The Supergrid - preferably a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission System - will only be fed by renewable energy sources and would therefore ‘clean’ the environment significantly.

Consumers would also benefit, firstly because it would be cheaper and because they are getting fully renewable electricity.

Lastly the economies of some countries would benefit. If we think about establishing wind and solar farms in Africa for example, then there could be investment made in these countries and so they could profit from an extra growth in their economy and significantly reduce their unemployment by exporting parts of their energy to European countries.

International corporate business would also benefit as they have the potential to invest in global energy production and fight climate change which could ultimately be very costly for them.

MV - What in your view is preventing this from happening?

GC - There are many players, firstly the decision makers - The first applications for the concept of the renewable Supergrid - as it resulted as being the best solution from my research - were made in late 2001 and it has been very difficult get the facts in front of the politicians to create awareness and crucially to give them the correct information on the huge potential of this shared international and intercontinental grid.

The utility companies, who have their own grids and own production, often resist strong links to other countries and competitors. Consequently they will not lead on this at least not as a fast approach, however I believe that if the politicians lead the corporate organisations would have to follow and ultimately might also benefit.

Ideologists and de-centralists are also looking at this from a ‘small is beautiful’ perspective and nothing else. They fight the large scale renewables, which are sometimes far away from the consumer, believing the home grown production is better.

MV - How financially viable is this?

GC - There is a simple answer. If the international system is properly designed the costs of renewable electricity are not higher than the today’s costs of electricity. Therefore it basically is absolutely viable.

A key to this is provision of capital outlay provided by financial backers such as governments and corporate business. An internationally agreed feed-in tariff (e.g. the amount of money a renewable energy producer is paid for the energy they supply to the grid) that guarantees that the costs of production and transmission are covered would be extremely helpful to attract investment. If you have good tools for investment based on loans renewable electricity will be cheaper than supply from oil, gas and coal with their fluctuating prices.

MV - Do we have the right skills?

GC - All the necessary technology is there, some parts have to be adapted to the highest HVDC voltage available today e.g. the circuit breaker necessary for a meshed HVDC system. Another engineering project will be developing the cables for this voltage to connect under the sea between countries. However, no crucial part of the technology is missing and there is no question that we have the right skills for the job.

Summary

GC - Really it is all about co-operation between energy supplies and political backing groups and countries. Increasing awareness and knowledge are crucial and I am confident we are moving in the right direction. If I could make one change now it would be the introduction of an international feed-in tariff, which I believe would make a huge difference.

Allen & York are interested to follow this story as it developes and we'd love to hear your opinions, so please join in the discussion.

Visit the A&Y Website to find out more about Dr Gregor Czisch and Supergrid Renewable Electricity

2009-06-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

GLOBAL RENEWABLE ENERGY RECRUITMENT AWARDS

Allen & York are pleased to be entering the 2009 Renewables Recruitment Excellence Awards

So if you are in the Renewables Industry and you like us - vote for us!

Renewable Energy Jobs online is launching the first Global Renewable Energy Recruitment Channel Survey. This global survey will explore current and future trends in recruitment and analyse the effectiveness and popularity of various recruitment channels used across the renewable energy industry and around the world.

So, if you are currently involved directly within the industry please take part as it is valuable to us to receive your feedback and it only takes 5 minutes!

The information collected from the survey will also be used to decide all of the winners of the 2009 Renewables Recruitment Excellence Awards which will be presented in September/ October 2009 - Awards will include: Best Recruitment Agency & Best Recruitment Consultant and will include global and regional categories.

Your votes count!

If you would like to vote for Allen & York, please take part by clicking on the link below - Complete the Survey - Vote for Allen & York

Thank you and we look forward to speaking with you soon.

Best wishes from everyone at Allen & York

Allen & York Race for Julia's House Children's Hospice

2009-06-01T06:32:00.000-07:00

DRAGON BOAT RACE TO HAWAII FIVE-O!
Submitted by miriam on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 12:09.
Article Date:
06/01/2009

Allen & York were delighted to race for charity on Bank Holiday Monday 25th May, raising money for Julia’s House Children’s Hospice in Dorset. A BIG thank you to everyone, especially friends and family who sponsored us, we really appreciate your support and are delighted to continue our support of a very worthwhile charity. To find out more about the fabulous work they do visit the Julia's House website.

We spent a fabulous sunny morning at the Sherborne Castle Country Fair, pitting our paddling skills against Dorset’s finest. Getting off to a great start and accompanied by the Hawaii Five-O music (as were all the races), we won our 1st and 2nd races, shaving 2 seconds off our time as the crew of HEADHUNTER dug deep and got more and more competitive! Well, what do you expect from a boat full of recruiters? The paddles flew, everyone got very wet and our drummer managed to balance rather precariously, on a very small seat jutting out just above the dragon’s head!

Our supporters cheered enthusiastically and thank you to everyone who came along to spur us on. Unfortunately, our 3rd heat didn’t go quite to plan, a quick reshuffle of the team and some uncoordinated rowing resulted in us not making the final. As much as we wanted to win, we were very happy to take part and we plan to do it all again next year.

Fundraising in a Dragon Boat Race!

2009-05-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

Allen & York are delighted to be raising money for Julia's House Children's Hospice, by taking part in a Dragon Boat Race.

17 plucky Recruitment Consultants are pitching their paddling skills against Dorset's best at the Sherborne Country Fair on Bank Holiday Monday 25th May 2009.

Last year the army team won, so we're going to need a strong wind and lots of luck behind us to even attempt to win the race.

If you would like to sponsor our team, please click on the link below, and Thank you very much!

http://www.justgiving.com/allen-york

Allen & York Win UNEP Award

2009-05-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Allen & York were delighted to be recognised as one of the first 100 participants of the Climate Neutral Network (CN Net) an initiative led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The UNEP has been established to promote global action and involvement in moving towards low carbon economies and societies.

As a leading specialist Environmental Recruitment Consultancy, Allen & Yorke recognise and understand the importance of protecting the environment and promoting best practice, which led to the ‘greening' of their offices.

Envirowise - a government initiative providing practical environmental advice for business - were brought in to offer guidance and identify further ways to improve their environmental performance.

Waste to landfill, energy usage, water usage and transport were areas that were categorised to have significant environmental impact.

The main measures take by Allen & York include:

Establishing a wormery to reduce waste to landfill by an estimated 50%.
Removing individual waste bins and introducing communal recycling bins for plastic, glass, tins, cans, paper and cardboard.
Offsetting travel emissions to and from work, including client visits.
Removal of water coolers and fitting of charcoal filter to the mains water pipe, saving on energy.
Installation of thermostatic controls to heating system, to save energy.
Ordering only recycled toilet roll and fair trade tea & coffee.
And where possible, sourcing from local & environmentally assured suppliers.

For more information visit the A&Y profile: http://www.climateneutral.unep.org/cnn_members.aspx?m=503

Allen & York intend to drive their ‘green strategy' forward into 2009/2010 and are looking for more ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Mark Allen, the Managing Director said that;

‘We are delighted to accept the Climate Neutral Network Award, from such a prestigious organisation as the UNEP. I strongly believe in our ongoing corporate social responsibilities towards preserving and protecting the environment. This award will spur us on to seek further improvements and continually focus on improving in this area".

The CN Net is helping to achieve significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by making the best knowledge on climate neutrality available to all and sharing practical experiences. To find out more visit their website at: http://www.unep.org

ALLEN & YORK SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE RURAL HOUSING

2009-03-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

Allen & York are a global environmental recruiter working internationally throughout the Middle East, Australia, Asia - as well as across the UK . We are based in rural Dorset and have our hearts and environmental minds embedded firmly within the countryside and rural issues. With this in mind, we are encouraged by a recent Government report on housing in rural communities, in which Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor warned dozens of villages are in danger of dying out because of the shortage of affordable housing.

This has been a developing problem for us in the South West and as Margaret Beckett the Housing Minister is quoted as saying;
"All too often the high cost of homes and low wages are pricing young families out of their communities, with the average rural home costing up to 10 times the average salary in some rural areas,"

A series of measures have been announced and most interestingly for Allen & York, councils are being encouraged to develop sustainable new housing, rather than the concrete housing estates of years gone by.

On the downside Mrs Beckett also suggested that more "exception" sites on greenbelt or other restricted land be made available, which might not be so popular within the rural communities. It may be argued, as does Kate Gordon - Senior Planner for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, that instead the Councils should be rebuilding derelict buildings and developing brownfield sites.

Allen & York strongly believe in Sustainable Building & Planning and support the career progression of Natural Environment & Sustainability Professionals at all levels. We hope that affordable rural housing can be achieved without destroying our beautiful countryside!

If you work within the Natural Environment & Sustainability sector and are interested in career opportunities, browse our website for the latest Natural Environment & Sustainability Jobs

Women In Waste

2009-03-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

The current climate can not be described as prosperous whatever the profession that you are in. It is not a way of ‘living’ but merely a means of ‘surviving’. This has never been more accurate than for the women in waste.

The name Jane is defined as one of the many feminine forms of John whereas John is defined as an English masculine name. In the workplace in many industries today, focussing on the Environment Industry in particular, the name John should now be classed as the masculine form of Jane in an evident reversal of roles.

Jane Davidson and Jane Kennedy are two women impacting the Environment Industry through leadership as Environment Ministers. Many other women now sit on the Board of Directors in Environmental organisations that were previously male dominated.

Jane Kennedy was appointed the Minister of State for DEFRA – Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs - in October 2008. In the waste world she has recently been in the news with plans for building 1000 anaerobic digestion plants to process food waste and farm manures into heat, power and fuel. These plants aim to be built by 2020 to help meet targets of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 26% and furthermore reduce greenhouse gasses by 80% by 2050.

As the new Minister for Farming and the Environment, Jane Kennedy has many responsibilities including animal welfare and health and more relevantly waste and recycling. She is one female minister out of three male ministers at Defra.

Jane Davidson – Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing – was voted Number 1 in the Resource Magazine’s ‘Resource Hot 100’ - a current list of who is influencing and actioning change in the sustainable waste management industry in the UK.

Her role as Minister includes leading on Climate Change and Sustainability on behalf of her Cabinet as well as planning, energy, water, waste and promoting walking and cycling. As a result of her ambitiousness and support, Jane Davidson was awarded 3rd place in the Independent on Sunday’s Green List of the top 100 environmental campaigners in the UK.

Published lists as mentioned, awarding individuals on their efforts in environmental positions in the environment and related industries, and headlining the news are increasingly being dominated by influential, powerful females such as CEO of WRAP, Liz Goodwin, Head of Waste at EA, Liz Parkes, the Environmental Officer at Lush, Ruth Andrade and most recently the new Head of Consultancy at Mistral Group, Amanda Barry-Hirst.

Over the past year, Allen & York – global leading recruitment specialists in the environment and related industries – have moved from a 100% male management team to a 50:50 ratio of men and women, managing the individual teams of expert consultants, to the Company as a whole.

Successful, professional females is still a fairly new concept today as Women’s rights including the right to vote, to work, equal and fair pay, to be educated etc, changed at the beginning of the 20th Century. For centuries, women fought for the same rights as men and it finally changed from women having limited rights to the equal existence of men and women today.

Environmental history focuses on men’s roles and generally ignored any female involvement; evidence of this has been identified in texts that centred on elite male concerns and generally disregarded or marginalised females resulting in numerous gaps in the environmental history of women.

In recent decades, women have openly and noticeably expressed concern about environmental issues from all social classes, nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. This change increased alongside the increased number of movements in support of women’s rights, put together women recognising that they have the right to participate in environmental dilemmas.

Women have worked together to effect change by establishing NGO’s – Non-Governmental Organisations – which has made them increasingly powerful as they acknowledge to the world that not only do they have the right to act as catalysts for change but theories have stated that women could better protect the Earth than men if in power. This combination of feminism and environmentalism has lead to the new approach, Ecofeminism.

Ecofeminisim or Ecological feminism was a term born in 1974 by Francoise d’Eaubonne, a French feminist, who believed that the social mentality that leads to the domination and oppression of women is directly connected to that leading to the abuse of the environment.

The core belief of Ecofeminisim is that of male domination, exploitation of women and of the degradation of nature by men, overall proposing patriarchy as the root cause of many of the problems in the world.

Gender and Urban Waste Management is a topic that has been researched into and it was discovered that the empowerment of women is critical in the support of new initiatives in urban services and environmental protection to increase project effectiveness, avoid costly mistakes and ensure equitable access to resources or benefits which the project makes available. The latter supporting ecofeminstic beliefs that male domination has hindered the environment in the past.

Womens movements such as Ecofeminism and earlier movements like the NUWSS, National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, and the WSPU, Women’s Social and Political Union, existed purely for freedom and to fight for what they believed in.

However, forty years after the Equal Pay Act, surveys still show women getting paid significantly less than men for similar work therefore the question can be raised, are women truly equal to modern men and in the current economy will this be a deciding factor for the future of the women in the waste industry?

A recognized figure in this industry like Jane Kennedy has been able to advance in her field and career but she is still outnumbered by men in the boardroom which would possibly signify that a discriminatory “glass ceiling” still exists for women.

The TUC – Trades Union Congress – general secretary Brendan Barber said, at the beginning of March, that the recession was going to be an ‘equal opportunities recession’. However, a study conducted by the TUC showed the redundancy rate among women had risen by 2.3% which was almost double the rate for men in 2008.

With this in mind, are women still fighting an uphill battle to gain the respect and authority they deserve from a previously male orientated industry? Or has the balance changed to sit in favour with a female majority?

Paul Gosling, Operations Director at Allen & York says, “It has been apparent over the last 3 years that many of our clients have recruited more women in what used to be male dominated roles and at all levels from Graduates to Directors.” He continued by saying, “This change is not sector specific, but noticeable across the Environment and all related industries that we serve.”

It is obvious that it is the beginning of a changing era where women will continue to fight for the top jobs and succeed. The nature of business will never really change, people will take on certain roles, make changes, or not, and then move on. The challenge is how long you can hold on to that position and be seen as a success. Certainly from the ‘Resource Hot 100’ Jane Davidson is ranked number one but amongst a male majority, how long will she be able to hold on to the top spot?

Environmental Industries Commission shows positive signs!

2009-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

We haven't even reached the end of January and there are already positive signs for our industry!

The Environmental Industries Commission(EIC) conducted a survey of over 100 environmental service firms at the beginning of the new year and found that one in three were expecting sales growth of between 11-20% over the next five years, despite the economic downturn.

This growth is to be seen mainly within the energy sector which is expected to become one of the largest markets for more than half of the respondents - mainly environmental consultants with a quarter technology providers.

There is evidence to support this at Allen & York as our Energy Team is constantly expanding, having already quadrupled to match the demand of the industry with the Governments targets – potentially creating 160,000 ‘green collar jobs’.

However, most respondents felt that the Government is not doing enough to help the sector and that this in turn is hindering the flow of investment into the industry.

What are your thoughts on this? Is it fair to suggest that there is inadequate enforcement of regulation? a lack of skills? weak legislative standards?

The above were most frequently identified as barriers to growth!

What actions could the Government take to help the environmental industry and encourage further investment?

In the news this week it was reported that the Government are searching for policies that will both provide jobs and meet the UK's climate change targets.

So far they have come up with increasing the UK's forest cover from 11% to 12%. By doing so, more C02 will be absorbed whilst increasing employment opportunities.

Individuals would be employed to look after the trees. Wood can then also be used to replace coal and gas therefore more wood-fuelled heating plants would need to be installed generating electricity and thousands of jobs. The UK could aim to install thousands of small-scale wood-burning (or, more likely, wood gasification) plants dotted around forested areas.

Is this really an option? What could be done to aid the economic climate now?

Happy New Year

2009-01-05T04:10:00.000-08:00

Allen & York would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

2009 what will it hold for the world of recruitment?

With the economy in its' current state Allen & York are standing strong by continuing to expand and explore new and exciting areas.

The Engineering department has now grown with an increasing number of job vacancies, all of which are listed on the website.

An increased global focus has led to an expansion within the International team. Allen & York's specialisms - Environment, Engineering, Planning & Built Environment, Energy, Waste and Health & Safety - are now searching for the right candidates for the most suitable roles, globally!

As market leaders in our industry we can help you find a new career for a new start to a new year.

Please contact us through the website at http://www.allen-york.com/ or call on 0870 870 8986