Celebrating one year of science-led Thursday webinars
August 16, 2021The First Thursday Club is a monthly scientific, specialist-led webinar that focuses on best practices relating to the natural environment and how these could affect RSK and external businesses. Created by RSK Biocensus, RSKโs ecological business, and organised by Jane Rigby, RSK Events Manager, the lunchtime webinar series has proved enormously popular and successful since its inception in August 2020. Now we are celebrating its first anniversary, it is an opportune time to recap the noteworthy sessions.
Beginning in early August, the inaugural session of the First Thursday Club looked at newts. Stephanie Wray, an RSK Biocensus director and the chair of CIEEMโs Strategic Policy Panel, spoke about new survey techniques using environmental DNA, understanding the new licensing policies for great crested newts and how to decide on the best approach for a worksite. Autumn and September heralded brighter skies, longer evenings and the interesting lives of badgers. Richard Delahay, an RSK Biocensus director and a professor of wildlife biology at the University of Exeter, offered insights into dealing with badgers on development sites: specifically, resolving conflicts between badgers and development schemes. This second First Thursday Club was well attended, and almost 200 people watched it subsequently on YouTube.
In October, Roberta Epps (RSK Biocensus) and Lorna Hurst (RSK carbon, climate and sustainability team) outlined how RSK helps its clients maximise their BREEAM successes. By November, the monthly Thursday webinars were becoming a staple event and were consistently well attended. Dr Peter Walker, an experienced aquatic ecologist, introduced the main issues concerning fish passage and outlined the processes that should be undertaken to address them. RSK Biocensus Director Mark Lang, Defra metric specialist, hosted Decemberโs webinar: the fourth-most-attended First Thursday Club, which concerned achieving net gain on-site using Defraโs biodiversity metric. The live event was attended by almost 200 people, which ballooned considerably to almost 450 views on YouTube, the second-highest viewings to date. โIt was an excellent webinar,โ commented Lawrence Usherwood, from Usherwood Arboriculture, โand well-presented with easy-to-digest informationโ.
From JanuaryโMarch 2021, several First Thursday Club events concerned rewilding, biodiversity and bat mitigation. Rewilding is a crucial aspect of government plans to restore green spaces, including analysing the economics of biodiversity. According to Jon Davies, who leads RSK Wilding and hosted the webinar on rewilding, the governmentโs approach will โherald a big push towards rewilding Britain, following, as it does, the governmentโs November pledge of ยฃ40 million for restoring green spaces, and Septemberโs commitment to restoring 30 per cent of Britain to nature by 2030โ. Over the 45-minute webinar, Jon explained how RSK is perfecting its expertise in biodiversity, land management, habitat creation, carbon offsetting and natural capital assessment to help tackle biodiversity loss and climate change by rewilding.
In a corresponding webinar on biodiversity, Stephanie Wray from Nature Positive identified the goods and services provided by nature that businesses rely on. Specifically, Stephanie spoke about minimising business risks and reducing biodiversity footprint. By March 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic was fully established on the British mainland and bats were more newsworthy than ever before. Bat expert Paola Reason from RSK Biocensus, a fellow of the CIEEM and a member of various advisory groups, including Natural Englandโs bat expert panel and the CIEEMโs bat mitigation panel steering group, explained some of the attributes that make bats important and outlined how we can best protect them through building back greener. Not surprisingly, the webinar was very popular: Mark Wilson, from Costain, said that from an experienced practitionerโs viewpoint, the event was very informative. David Sargent, from JBA Consulting, agreed with Mark, โIt was an excellent and engaging presentation. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. It is great to hear from a pragmatic bat expert who is solution-focused and challenging the perceived wisdom.โ
Over spring and summer 2021, several RSK specialists spoke about diverse topics, including offshore wind farm developments; crayfish; and how human activities can influence diseases emerging and spreading. The events have been attracting a large following on YouTube, which enables viewers to watch reruns conveniently. We are confident that the First Thursday Club will continue to produce engaging and well-informed content from our in-house specialists.
Click here for future RSK events; click here and scroll through past events to watch previous First Thursday Club webinars on YouTube.
๐ณ๏ธโ๐ RSK is proud to stand alongside members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community.
๐ People deserve to be their authentic selves and love freely without fear.
You can read Graeme and Abigail's full stories next week in RSK insights. Keep an eye on our social media for more information.
#rskfamily #pride #pridemonth #loveislove #lgbtq
๐ธ #selfiesonsite ๐คณ
Ryan Dunderdale, Senior Surveyor at Central Alliance, providing technical support and on-site training to datum plate install teams down in Bristol.
Want to join our team? View our latest opportunities ๐ www.rskgroup.com/careers
#RSKgroup #behindthescenes #meettheteam #RSKfamily #RSKonsite #engineering #construction
๐ In the June edition of our #employeespotlight, we spoke with with Rosie Pearce at Stephenson Halliday and Carmen Snowdon at WRc Group to find out about their recent achievements ๐
๐ Congratulations to you both!
Click the link in our bio to find out more!
#rskfamily #employeeapprecitation #team #landscapeinstitute #instituteofwater #architecture
"If you donโt feel valued, represented and respected in your workplace, then inevitably your #wellbeing will suffer.โ
๐ In our latest edition of #ADayInTheLife, we spoke with Ellen Lapworth-Maisey, Wellbeing, #Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at RSK โ a fascinating position that helps to create an inclusive and empowering #culture for all RSK staff.
Click the link in bio to learn more!
#RSKGroup #RSKfamily #diversity #inclusion #mentalhealth
๐ธ #selfiesonsite ๐คณ
Some pictures of the Envireau Water staff on site.
Want to join our team? View our latest opportunities ๐ www.rskgroup.com/careers
#RSKgroup #behindthescenes #meettheteam #RSKfamily #RSKonsite #waterindustry #construction
๐ถ ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฐ๐น๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐๐
#RSKSteps came to an end on Tuesday 31 May after a month of stepping adventures.
๐๐ป ๐ป๐๐บ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐:
โ๏ธ1449 participants
โ๏ธ332,268,416 steps
โ๏ธยฃ1500 raised for our chosen charity, MIND!
Read more about this fantastic challenge in our bio!
#RSKGroup #RSKfamily #wellbeing #health #mentalhealth #walking
#RSKEvents
๐ Join Dirk Van Look and Chris Hughes on our webinar all about #PFAS โ perfluoroalkyl substances, which are both human-made and known to be harmful to humans.
๐ก We will showcase real-life examples to demonstrate how RSK is responding and developing capabilities to assess these emerging #contaminants.
Find out more and register now in our bio!
#RSKGroup #RSKfamily #PFAScontaminants #foreverchemicals #chemicals
๐ In light of #PrideMonth, we are sharing information about how to become a better ally. #Pride offers a sense of solidarity and a platform for expression.
Keep an eye out for our upcoming posts!
#RSKGroup #rskfamily #LGBT #LGBTQ+ #inclusion #diversity #LGBTally #Pride2022
๐ข RSK is pleased to announce it has further expanded its presence in Ireland by acquiring one of the most reputable tree care companies in the country.
๐ณ Dermot Casey Tree Care was founded in the 1970s by Managing Director Dermot Casey and is one of the most highly regarded tree surgery companies in Ireland, with more than 50 years of experience.
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#RSKGroup #RSKfamily #treecare #landscape #treesurgery #landscaping #nature