The September edition of environmental SCIENTIST explores an approach that the IES has long championed in the sector: interdisciplinarity.
Defined here as a way of working across and beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, interdisciplinarity is fundamental to environmental science: a field that is home to a broad range of topics, concepts, and approaches to research and practice.
It could therefore be argued that environmental science is the natural habitat of interdisciplinary working. A less siloed approach to environmental work has gained traction over the last decade, and interdisciplinarity is now often held up as the gold standard of new research and working practices in environmental science. Professionals are encouraged to think and work with interdisciplinarity in mind: but how does this take shape when creating new research projects, new interdisciplinary teams, or engaging new audiences? Does the buzzword of interdisciplinarity bring with it adequate funding, support, and impetus for systemic change: enough to allow truly interdisciplinary work to take place, and break new ground?
This issue of environmental SCIENTIST considers the answers to these questions by showcasing success stories of the creation of new interdisciplinary communities, the formation of interdisciplinary Higher Education (HE) curricula for the next generation of environmental scientists, and considering how environmental professionals can follow their own game-changing interdisciplinary career paths.
Download the Journal (PDF) and Teaching Resource (docx) for this edition.
The March 2025 issue of environmental SCIENTIST, Who pays? Money, power and risk in sustainable finance, is now available open access on the website. 
This issue of environmental SCIENTIST turns to one of the most contentious and complex topics within the environmental sector: finance. The edition considers how we can harness finance to advance environmental improvement, support the transition to net zero, and ensure that our economy is resilient in the face of environmental problems. Crucially, this issue asks who pays for this transition, and how.
There has been widespread global implementation of new financial measures, initiatives and policies (e.g., carbon taxes, Environment and Social Governance (ESG), and green finance to name a few), but the complexities and pitfalls of our current global economic system present challenges for policymakers, researchers, and environmental professionals alike. Financial support for environmental programmes, research and innovation must also remain accessible, democratic, and innovative. This issue of environmental SCIENTIST therefore asks how we can best work towards a truly sustainable financial system, which can unlock new opportunities for environmental and social improvement.
Authors contributing to this issue are experts in the environmental dimensions of finance, from academics and communications experts to political commentators. Their articles consider the successes and failures of new financial frameworks and standards, examine the geopolitics of financing environmental improvement, explore the possibilities for new ways of communicating environmental finance, and investigate innovative solutions to financial challenges.
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The December 2024 edition of the IES’ journal, environmental SCIENTIST, A Planetary Prescription, is now available open access on the website.
This issue of environmental SCIENTIST sheds light on the ways in which human health and the environment are inextricably linked. Articles explore the complexities of well-known issues such as PFAS contamination and air pollution, alongside topics including inequitable access to healthcare and the green spaces necessary for wellbeing, the impacts of heat stress on maternal health, and the health effects of increasing mould and fungus in UK housing due to climate change. This edition will ultimately raise important questions about the unevenly distributed effects of environmental damage on human health, and propose ways to address these imbalances head-on.
Contributors in this issue respond to the health impacts of both systemic and specific environmental crises, driving forward thinking around how we respond holistically to the countless health challenges global society is facing, particularly those that are intensified by climate change and its multifaceted effects.
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The September 2024 edition of the IES’ journal, environmental SCIENTIST, Counting on Net Gain, is now available open access on the website.
This issue of the journal examines an idea that is gaining traction in environmental thinking in recent years: net gain. Approaching this topic from a range of different disciplines and perspectives, articles in this issue of environmental SCIENTIST consider the opportunities and limitations of net gain, as a global policy and regulatory framework, and as a way of thinking that can shape our understanding of progress and development.
Contributors in this issue will examine specific policies, such as the now-mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain, which came into effect in England in February 2024, as well as broader conceptualisations of the term that incorporate marine life, the wider environment, and our society.
Situating net gain in a global context, articles will respond to important questions about its usage and implementation: including what challenges do policymakers face when addressing such complex and far-reaching goals? How can landowners and other stakeholders become engaged with long-term and complex environmental protection practices? Is net gain a concept that should be extended to other areas of environmental protection and policy, beyond just biodiversity? The authors of the articles in this issue of environmental SCIENTIST address these questions informed by their expertise in fields such as land management, architecture, land remediation, and digital ecology.
By bringing together voices at the cutting edge of these sectors, this issue takes a holistic and informed perspective on the emergence of net gain both as a policy and an ideological framework.
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The November 2020 edition of the IES’ journal, environmental SCIENTIST, produced in collaboration with CHES, is now available open access on our website.
This issue explores the benefits of an environmental science education above and beyond environmental knowledge, with articles examining career pathways and new routes into the sector, the role of young people in the environmental movement, the value of inclusion in environmental science, and how to educate for an environmentally resilient economy.
The journal provides a resource for students and staff to engage with a broad range of environmental science topics, and can be used alongside our tailored learning resources to enhance students’ understanding.
The learning resources are designed to provided a format for informal, seminar-style discussions of the topics and themes within the journal.
Download the learning resource for this journal edition (.docx)
The purpose of these educational resource notes is to provide a format for informal, seminar-style discussions of the topics explored in the latest edition of the journal of the Institution of Environmental Sciences.
Through discussion of the ideas and issues presented within the journal, they aim to supplement and enhance students’ knowledge and understanding of a broad range of environmental science issues and provide insights into the professional concerns of practising environmental scientists.
Download the resource notes for Reconnecting Society with its Ecological Roots (docx)
From plastic in rivers and oceans to the contribution to climate change, the issue of waste can no longer be confined to landfill. Despite growing awareness of the consequences of our use of resources and our wasteful habits, there are many problems still to be solved. This edition examines how circular economy theory can be embedded across sectors, how we might tackle plastic in oceans and rivers, and provides practical case studies of waste hierarchies in action. This is one journal that won’t end up in the recycling bin, but will be passed around family and colleagues.
The accompanying educational resource notes aim to provide a format for informal, seminar-style discussions of the topics explored in the latest edition of the journal of the Institution of Environmental Sciences.
Through discussion of the ideas and issues presented within the journal, they aim to supplement and enhance students’ knowledge and understanding of a broad range of environmental science issues and provide insights into the professional concerns of practising environmental scientists.
Download the teaching resource for The World Wakes Up to Waste (.docx)