Peter Barham Environment Ltd

Peter Barham Environment Ltd

Sustainable Solutions for Complex Environments

Peter Barham has over 20 years experience as a senior manager in both public and private sectors delivering environmental and sustainable development solutions. His work has had extensive impacts on the way that freshwater, coastal and marine issues are managed, ensuring that the needs of the environment are fully met, while also enabling essential developments to be constructed. Natural England described the solutions he developed to enable port development in the Humber Estuary as 'best practice in sustainable development'.

He has worked closely with Government to determine more effective ways of managing new and existing regulation and continues to do so in his capacity as facilitator for the Seabed User and Developer Group which acts on behalf of all the key marine industries in UK waters. www.sudg.org

Main Features

• Peter Barham has over 20 years experience in the public and private sectors at senior manager level. He worked for the Environment Agency until 2001 and Associated British Ports Ltd until 2009

• Project work and strategic planning of flood defences in rivers and coasts

• Coastal management planning

• Port development

• Environmental management systems

• Influencing Government to ensure better regulation and sustainable development of the marine environment.

Throughout his career he has established a strong reputation for delivering environmentally acceptable and often innovative solutions acceptable to all interested parties, including regulatory bodies and NGOs, in highly sensitive environmental areas.

Experience and Success

• Working on behalf of the UK and EU port industries in many aspects of developing new regulation and implementing existing regulation, including developing protocols for working with the EU Habitats Directive and EU Water Framework Directive.

• Chairing the Seabed User and Developer Group, SUDG until 2009, which represents 4.2% GDP and c. 900,000 jobs - www.sudg.org.uk . The Group acts for all the main marine industries including oil and gas, aggregates, renewable energy, offshore cables and carbon storage, and worked closely with Government on the successful development of the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act.

• Representing the EU port industry in discussions with the EU Parliament on Environmental Legislation

• Leading a European group which published a document setting out good environment practice for ensuring port development complied with the EU Habitats and Birds Directives ESPO Code of Practice on the Birds and Habitats Directive. 2007. ESPO. Brussels

• Resolving the considerable environmental issues associated with a number of port developments, identifying successful methods for delivering legal approvals and the compensatory habitats and as a consequence reducing or completely avoiding the need for Public Inquiry

• Developing a comprehensive environmental management framework for all environmental aspects of the 21 ports owned by Associated British Ports. This framework applied from the Chief Executive (and) throughout the whole organisation.

• Building on good environment management through the development of internal audit procedures and using the results to ensure continuous improvement.

• Leading the environmental input into the development of ABP's Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) standard, an area of work critical to establishing credibility in the City.

• Developing a comprehensive approach to environmental risk assessment and management in ABP and ensuring that the outputs were embedded in the company's overall approach to risk management.

• Leading on developing a strategic approach to long term management of the Humber Estuary; the first in the UK which built environmental consideration into strategic flood risk management and also included all the functions of the Environment Agency.

• Creating the mechanisms for developing a long term flood risk management strategy as well as delivering urgent flood defence works to protect people and property.

• Leading on freshwater management issues and building good environment management into the development of East Anglia's capital programme of flood defence work, including flood alleviation strategies for the Norfolk Broads and Ouse Washes.

• Developing the environmental procedures for the National Rivers Authority Flood Defence Programme in 1991-3, at a time when there was little or no guidance on environmental assessment and the EU Habitats Regulations had not been transposed into UK law.