Associates

Maria Rosario Partidario
Maria is based in Portugal where she is responsible for the Environmental Group at the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Lisbon (The Instituto Superior Técnico, IST). Her expertise is in the fields of strategic assessment and sustainability, applied to various areas including tourism and urban sustainability. She undertakes research and consultancy work in many countries and has been involved in European research projects, directly with selected Directorate Generals, as well as Interreg and Framework Programmes such as COMMUTE, ANSEA (FP4), BIOSCENE (FP5) and BEACON. She has been advisor to national governments, such as Portugal, Chile, Brazil, Iran, China and Vietnam, and international organizations such as the World Bank, UNEP and UNDP, also developing international cooperation through bi-lateral organizations in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Maria's research is focused on strategic-based methodological approaches as a support to sustainable decision-making. She publishes extensively and since early-1990 has been at the forefront of the development of Strategic Environmental Assessment in the world. She was awarded the first Individual Award (2001) of the International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA) for her theoretical and international contributions in the field of SEA.

Juan Palerm
Juan Palerm is an environmental policy and management specialist based in Barcelona with extensive international experience in the design and implementation of environmental assessment and management tools, such as SEA, EIA and Environmental Management Systems. He has worked in different regions, including Portugal, Spain and Latin America. His expertise combines work in the public sector, including national governments and international agencies, as well as in the private sector. He has led SEAs in South America, the Caribbean and Africa, and has also contributed to numerous studies on areas such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, environmental foresight and environmental policy. Juan is co-author of the European Commission's Guidelines for Environmental Mainstreaming, and was a key contributor in designing and piloting environmental integration tools for the Commission's development cooperation, including EIA, SEA, Country Environmental Profile and Climate Risk Assessment. Juan has also prepared Sector Briefing Notes on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation to the European Commission's DG External Relations and has wide experience in developing and delivering training to diverse stakeholders.

Bojana Bajzelj
Bojana is currently undertaking a research project at the University of Cambridge on modelling and scenario analysis of present and future integrated land use. She has a Masters in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London, specialising in environmental analysis and assessment, and a Masters of Engineering in Landscape Architecture and Planning from the University of Ljubljana specialising in planning, spatial modelling and environmental economics. She has two years consultancy experience in the UK involving research and projects relating to: product carbon footprints; greenhouse gas emission inventories and reporting; and other policy and regulation analysis and appraisal relating to, for example, green infrastructure, ecosystem services and European cohesion and regional policy. Prior to being based in the UK, Bojana worked in Slovenia as a planner / consultant at Ljubljana Urban Planning Institute (LUZ). There she was a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) project manager, undertook GIS analysis for infrastructure planning and land vulnerability studies and was a planner for Ljubljana's masterplan and numerous other urban masterplans and local development plans. She is also an advisor to the Institute for Sustainability and Wood Science in Slovenia. She is a native Slovenian speaker and is proficient in several other languages including English, French, German, Croatian and Serbian.

Tony Zamparutti
Tony has broad experience in environmental policy analysis and evaluation, gained in seven years as an official of the OECD Environment Directorate, subsequently as a freelance consultant working on environment and nature conservation at local level in Italy and now as senior policy associate at Milieu Ltd. As an OECD official, Tony managed studies on environmental financing in the Russian Federation, on donor country support for environmental projects and on environmental indicators and reporting systems. He also contributed to three OECD environmental performance reviews of Central and Eastern European countries. At Milieu, Tony has co-ordinated their four-year framework contract to support the European Environment Agency on policy analysis. Here, he worked on topics ranging from waste management to Cohesion Policy to scenarios of Europe's environmental future. He has led and provided senior expertise for several studies to support the European Commission on impact assessment. He also contributed senior-level expertise to the study on the application and effectiveness of the EIA Directive and the Study on the application and effectiveness of the SEA Directive (2007-8, led by COWI) and was a senior expert on Member State implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

Jennifer McGuinn
Jennifer is a senior policy associate at Milieu Ltd. She has thirteen years' experience working on environmental policy topics across the EU and Central and Eastern Europe. Her expertise includes environment and public financing programmes, environmental assessment, regional development and climate change. She has extensive experience in the management of multi-disciplinary teams and complex studies and projects, as well as a pan-European perspective to environmental policy gained from years of working for international organisations and multi-country projects. Jennifer joined Milieu in 2010, working on a range of environmental policy analyses covering waste management, water policy and a study to support the EEA's 2010 State of the Environment Report. As a freelance consultant since 2006, Jennifer was one of the principal authors of the (Interreg-funded) Greening Regional Development Programme's (GRDP) toolkit for integration of the environment into regional development programmes. She also serves as an advisor to the Interreg project Regions for Sustainable Change (RSC), a partnership of regions working to better integrate climate change and low carbon economy into regional planning. Jennifer worked for five years at the Regional Environmental Center (REC) for Central and Eastern Europe as Head of Programme and later Senior Expert, where she was responsible for programmes covering environmental assessment, environmental financing, biodiversity and rural development, and local government initiatives. She also led REC's work on analysing the environmental aspects of EU Cohesion Policy.

Peter Phillips
Peter is a an experienced environmental planner and researcher with a particular interest in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), green infrastructure planning, ecosystem service modelling and evaluation, ecosystems approach based decision-making and assessment, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), policy-development and public participation and consultation. Peter has undertaken SEA research commissions for the Scottish Government and SNIFFER and is currently finalising his MPhil research which has developed a GIS model for ecosystems approach based green network planning. This MPhil project has been undertaken in partnership with Glasgow City Council who anticipate using the model to inform green network policy in the City's Local Development Plan as well as other related policy and strategy-development work. Peter has successfully delivered a broad range of SEA consultancy projects across diverse policy areas from national level deer management policy to local level regeneration planning. He was also Glasgow City Council's (GCC) technical lead in the groundbreaking Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games SEA as well as a panel member on the recently completed Scottish SEA Toolkit Review. More recently, Peter has been applying his expertise in ecosystems approach based decision-making and assessment by researching and developing a bespoke methodology, based on the principles of the ecosystems approach, for the SEA of the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership's (MGSDP) Implementation Plan. The proposed approach has found widespread support from planners and regulators alike and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are particularly interested in the project given the precedent it may set for SEAs of SEPA's forthcoming Flood Risk Management Plans. Peter is also a skilled workshop developer and facilitator and regularly uses novel techniques to raise awareness of environmental issues in planning and policy-development.

Juan Palerm
Juan Palerm is an environmental policy and management specialist based in Barcelona with extensive international experience in the design and implementation of environmental assessment and management tools, such as SEA, EIA and Environmental Management Systems. He has worked in different regions, including Portugal, Spain and Latin America. His expertise combines work in the public sector, including national governments and international agencies, as well as in the private sector. He has led SEAs in South America, the Caribbean and Africa, and has also contributed to numerous studies on areas such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, environmental foresight and environmental policy. Juan is co-author of the European Commission's Guidelines for Environmental Mainstreaming, and was a key contributor in designing and piloting environmental integration tools for the Commission's development cooperation, including EIA, SEA, Country Environmental Profile and Climate Risk Assessment. Juan has also prepared Sector Briefing Notes on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation to the European Commission's DG External Relations and has wide experience in developing and delivering training to diverse stakeholders.

David Payne
David is an environmental planner based in Brighton. He trained as a biologist and town and country planner (MRTPI) and has 20 years' post-qualification experience in public, voluntary and private sectors on a range of environmental planning projects, particularly waste and minerals, climate change adaptation, biodiversity, and water management. Recent public sector projects include contributing to developing a climate change framework for English local authorities, preparing evidence for waste and minerals plans, assessment of potential for decentralised energy, and assessing business case and options for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Current work for the private sector includes input to minerals plans and national planning policy on behalf of the minerals industry, and preparation of site appraisals and planning applications for waste recovery developments. He is also working with the minerals industry to maximise opportunities to benefit biodiversity, including through participation in offsetting pilots, drawing on his and experience from working with voluntary nature conservation organisations. David brings a wide range of environmental planning expertise, good working knowledge of the UK planning system, and understanding of different sectors to projects.

Elham Kashefi
Elham is an experienced multi-disciplinary community-based researcher who, over the last 20 years, has been interested in developing her practice using collaborative research methodologies. She is currently working with CEP on the evaluation of the catchment-based approach (pilot stage) for Defra. She was recently involved in the CEP's evaluation of NERC's public dialogue on geoengineering and previously participated in a number of research projects on community responses to flooding. Elham has worked on several projects that have had an impact on policy and practice. Since 1996, Elham has primarily been working on processes for involving the public in decision-making and developed a new model of community-based citizens' juries. These juries construct local residents as local experts and use the space to hold professionals and their 'expertise' accountable to the community. Elham's PhD critiqued this work within wider theoretical debates about participation, and focused on elements of her group work that were successful in bringing about change at the local level. Elham is an experienced facilitator and has extensive experience of qualitative practice, data analysis and report writing both within her academic positions and in her capacity as research consultant.

Teresa Bennett
Teresa has worked as an ecologist for over 30 years. Her background covers environmental education, field survey, nature conservation, development planning, project development and personnel management. Before becoming a freelance consultant, she worked for the statutory nature conservation organisations. As a marine and coastal ecologist with the Nature Conservancy Council and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee she was coordinator of the Coastwatch project and also worked on the Marine Nature Conservation Review of Great Britain. In her role of Conservation Officer with English Nature she was involved in the conservation of nationally and internationally important wildlife sites. Specialising in development planning, she advised on a range of development proposals impacting on European sites. She also worked on a range of partnership topics including Estuary Management Plans, Shoreline Management Plans and Biodiversity Action Plans. During a secondment to the Countryside Agency, she prepared guidance on the Habitats Regulations in relation to proposed National Parks in southern England. She became Team Manager with English Nature in Kent, and was responsible for strategic and operational planning, and resource management. As a Transition Manager with Natural England she developed a training programme for staff across the south east region. Having been trained in stakeholder dialogue and facilitation, Teresa has applied participative techniques to a variety of awareness raising and decision making situations, including meetings and workshops. Teresa now runs her own company, Natural Values, as well as working as an associate with Collingwood Environmental Planning. Examples of projects include: Habitats Regulations (Appropriate Assessment) advice; running strategic planning workshops; preparing a landscape scale connectivity review; project evaluation; a review of European Marine Site Management Schemes; and a survey of visitor impacts on a National Park. Teresa is a Director and Trustee of the Kent and Medway Biological Records Centre.

Phil Sivell
Phil is the principal of an independent climate change consultancy. He works on a range of climate change and sustainability issues, mainly in partnership with a number of well known consultancies to form bespoke project teams. He is an experienced public speaker, presenting and chairing at a wide range of conferences. Prior to forming his own consultancy, Phil spent three years as the Climate Change Group Manager in the Centre for Sustainability (C4S) at TRL, one of the world's leading transport research and consultancy companies. This brought together teams covering areas of research including air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change adaptation, environmental assessment, noise, economics, resource management, materials and sustainable communities. He also has over 20 years experience of environmental management at a senior level in the public sector, with long experience in sustainable development policy and practice, with particular experience of energy management and the development of carbon management strategies. Phil was instrumental in the development of regional responses in England to the climate change challenge, initiating and directing the work of the South East Climate Change Partnership from its inception until 2002. He subsequently was a member of its Executive Committee and led its transition into the Climate South East Community Interest Company, becoming its first Chairman. He has been in the vanguard of regional impacts and adaptation work since the turn of the century. He initiated the UK Inter-regional Climate Change Group (now Climate UK), and was its Chairman from 2005 to 2009. He has a track record of delivering complex projects on time and on budget operating at a senior level in both the public and private sector.