I’m always slightly worried about professions which essentially seek to restrict supply of a service by creating barriers to entry through their own qualification standards. To get some idea of how this works have a look at the Environmental Skills Map. Whilst this might provide reassurance for employers it also drives up the price of the service which is of course what its members want.
Will liked the idea of matching similar organisations for offsetting within Suffolk but would be complicated and surely impeded by competitive issues? The current GLT proposal is a voluntary arrangement and not certified which is fine by me.
Hadn’t thought of peer-review replacing external audit but thought it could work at Bronze level. There is clearly a conflict of interest here with environmental professionals who earn their living by selling their services and the need to reach very large numbers of organisations. The Suffolk Observatory suggests no fewer than 19,540 micro organisations and 6,185 small businesses are out there. It’s a big ask!
