Nature Focus

Essex & Suffolk Water’s annual Nature Focus gives employees the chance to learn more about the species and habitats around them, whilst giving them the opportunity to provide and receive training as part of the Shared Learning programme. Nature Focus topics rotate on a three year basis between a habitat, a species or Shared Learning. This year, Northumbrian Water Limited will be running the 2010/11 Shared Learning programme.

Shared Learning

The programme was developed to enable Northumbrian Water Limited and our environmental partners to exchange skills and training opportunities to better understand, conserve and manage the natural environment. Participants of Shared Learning in the past have included the Broads Authority, Davy Down and the Wildlife Trusts (Durham, Essex, Norfolk, Northumberland, Suffolk and Tees Valley). Often, our partner organisations do not have access to business skills training, something which Northumbrian Water Limited can provide in accordance to their needs.

Offering such courses allows our environmental partners to increase their capacity and this has positive impacts on nature in the long-term. Excel training, project management and performance improvement training have received positive feedback in past programmes.

Specialist survey skills, guided site tours and nature presentations offered in return from our environmental partners enable the conservation teams at Northumbrian Water Limited to expand their knowledge and widen their ecological skills base. Guided site tours are popular throughout the company, providing employees with time out of the office to learn about nature and habitat management from experienced site wardens.

Courses and opportunities offered by Essex & Suffolk Water this year:

• Project Management

• MS Project

• Water efficiency

Courses and opportunities offered by our environmental partners:

• Talks on protected and invasive species (Essex Biodiversity Project)

• Guided tour of Oulton Marshes reserve (Suffolk Wildlife Trust)

• Promotion of Essex & Suffolk Water’s water efficiency message (Essex Wildlife Trust)

Collaborative working:

• Production of the Living Landscapes vision documents for Abberton Reservoir and Hanningfield Reservoir (Essex Wildlife Trust)

For information on past Nature Focus habitats of species, please view the relevant PDF below.

Document	PDF
Nature Focus habitats
Nature Focus species