A day in the life at Temple… Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Consultant

A Day in the life at Temple… Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Consultant

Name: Victoire Risgallah

Date joined Temple: October 2020

My day-to-day as an EIA consultant varies quite a lot, depending on what projects I work on. My role mostly consists of coordinating infrastructure Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) of various scales.  I am also involved in other sides of the business, for example working on climate change assessments with the climate change team, as well as business development activities and helping other teams when they are busy. This can include doing ecology surveys in the summer or interviews for the socio-economics team. The benefits of working for an SME such as Temple are that we get a taste of everything and there is fluidity between the teams. 

Morning: 

I spend a few minutes going through emails and writing down a ‘to-do’ list for the day. There is nothing more satisfying than crossing out tasks as you go. My main role is project coordinator on EIA projects. This consists of organising and communicating with technical teams and sometimes external contacts. I respond to any queries they have on the development of projects and relay information when it becomes available. I am currently working on a rail enhancement project, coordinating site access for surveys. I spend a lot of time talking to surveyors and land agents to organise these. Once all emails are noted or replied to, I work through my to-do list and plan tasks around my week. 

Afternoon: 

I like to stay busy, so I always make sure to have a bigger task that needs to be done, which I can work on when the day gets a little quieter. These vary a lot too, it can be writing sections of a scoping report or an Environmental Statement (ES), reviewing ES climate change chapters, organising the basis of assessment for HS2 Phase 2b, working on Temple’s carbon footprint, or helping with other teams. No day is the same, and often, something unexpected will come up in the afternoon which will need my focus instead, especially on EIA’s I coordinate. 

Because I work on multiple projects at once, the work never gets boring. It also means that I get to work with colleagues from a lot of different teams, which, now that we are slowly coming back to the office, is a great way to get to know people in the wider business. 

Notable projects: 

Having started as a graduate, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to work on so many different projects. It has given me a wide range of experience and has helped me figure out which type of projects I enjoy working on most. I started off at Temple on HS2 Phase 2b, working on the basis of assessment and in the ES Authorship team. Successfully delivering the Hybrid Bill ES, felt like a huge achievement. Since then, I have really enjoyed stepping into smaller EIA coordination roles like the Port of Ramsgate, because you get an overview of the project from start to finish and it’s a great project management experience. Temple really gives you the freedom to make the project your own and there is a lot of trust and support in the coordination team for junior staff to lead on projects. 

Recently, we have won a few climate change and sustainability opportunities, which I am very excited to get started on, as this is an area, I want to grow my experience in. I have a background in corporate sustainability and want to develop that further. We are encouraged to seek these opportunities to widen what we offer as a company, so I have also been involved in business development for our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) branch. It’s great to feel that support from upper management to go for opportunities in areas we are interested in and get the chance to learn and develop on the job.