Welcome to October’s CPD round-up! This is where I share a quick summary of the continuing profession development (CPD) I’ve completed during the month.

The Institute of Translation and Interpreting recommends that all members, including Qualified Members (MITIs) like me, do at least 30 hours of CPD per year. I normally end up doing rather more than that, and I normally only include subject-knowledge CPD (and sometimes some translation skills CPD) in this public summary. You can find out about the other types of CPD that the ITI recommends here and my previous summaries here.

Subject knowledge

Ancient Woodlands UK: Youth Campaign (IES ALDER)

Recording: not recorded

This was an interesting presentation from Katie Thompson, who works on the ‘front line’ of conservation in the UK. As the title suggests, it was all about the campaign’s efforts to strengthen protection for the nation’s ancient woodlands – both through new legislation and also, crucially, through creating societal awareness through ambassadors, engaging with stakeholders, etc.

Regards croisés sur le vivant – La Santé des sols (MSHSud)

[Intersecting views on the living world – soil health]

Recording: https://www.canal-u.tv/chaines/msh-sud/regards-croises-sur-le-vivant-en-societe-2023-2024-ep01

I heard about this talk after attending a related talk in September by one of the speakers, Alain Brauman. It was similarly fascinating, and – perhaps unsurprisingly, being given at a French institution – also quite abstract. The topic was again the question of how exactly we should think about soil health: What does it mean for a soil to be healthy? The speakers argued for going beyond a purely functional understanding of soil health, i.e. the condition we need it to be in to fulfil a particular purpose, and taking a broader perspective on the notion of health.

Delivering Nature Recovery: Opportunities and Challenges (IES EPIC)

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lspwB0V1Y9U

This session was a presentation given by Oliver Harmar of Natural England, followed by a roundtable with Anna Hansell of the University of Leicester and Sarah Legge of ARUP. As you might expect, the Natural England presentation was thorough and detailed, and looked at the challenges facing nature recovery in England and the tools available to fix it. There were also some interesting questions in the roundtable, but the overall message seemed to be that many of the projects and programs are still in their infancy, so whilst take-up might not have been as rapid as we might like so far, there is still time – and the will to make it work.

Implementation Science (IES EPIC)

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNfyYpzZjxs

Part of the same conference as the previous session, this webinar started by looking at the origins and goals of implementation science, which originated in the medical field as a way of applying a rigorous analysis to the successful deployment of policy. It then moved on to what this might mean for implementing environmental policy as part of a new project being launched by the Institution of Environmental Science (IES). What was really interesting about this session was its goal to open a new conversation and a new perspective, asking where members may want the IES to focus its efforts in the new project.

CSRD Berichterstattung und Wirtschaftsprüfung (Tanso Technologies)

[CSRD reporting and auditing]

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMTh5vcXLtE

This webinar was put on by a tech company with a tool to promote, so there was a certain marketing element to it, but it was still interesting to hear how these sorts of tools are built to support businesses as they report and are audited under the CSRD. One thing the webinar did a really good job of emphasising was the complexity of the CSRD system and how interconnected all the various components are. It also – unsurprisingly – emphasised the importance of integrating a system for documenting the process as early as possible.

Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services (IES FWR)

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntXugiaxGI

The rest of the month had quite a ‘watery’ feel, starting with this first session on the Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services tool. I have to confess, it’s not something I had thought about in detail before, but I suppose it’s not surprising that the amount of work involved in doing a full ecosystem analysis is prohibitive for many landowners. The goal of this tool is to simplify the process down to the minimum level of detail that still takes into account the complex interrelationships that exist within any area of wetland. One key thing that the tool is designed to do is put a numerical value on all the various ecosystem services that all of the different stakeholders rely on. To do this effectively, it is important to ensure that the assessors are well-versed in the process and also that that the purpose and scope of the assessment are clearly defined in advance.

Radical solutions for sponge cities: Preventing water emergencies in urban areas (RSK)

Recording: https://rskgroup.com/events/preventing-water-emergencies-in-urban-areas/

This webinar focused on the concept of ‘sponge cities’, which are urban areas that have been designed to capture and retain as much water as possible in a controlled manner - ‘controlled flooding’, as the speaker put it. This webinar was given before the devastating flooding in Valencia earlier this month, and I suppose this sort of coincidence will only become more common over time, but the idea that the time has come for ‘radical’ solutions does seem particularly timely. The speaker also discussed how people, and governmental bodies, can be motivated to invest in projects that will only pay off in 15-20 years, and especially how this can be done before it is too late.

Integrated water management and economic growth (IES FWR)

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X91BzI7nWcY

Though this webinar was perhaps more ‘technical’ than the previous one, it was no less radical. Its goal was to emphasise that proper water management is essential to economic growth, not an impediment. As many others have said, there has been systemic underinvestment in these sorts of systems for years, and this needs to be rapidly reversed if we are to stave off the potential economic damage that may result in the near future. The speaker gave 7 recommendations for achieving this. I won’t try to summarise these now, but the recording is available for anyone interested in hearing what those recommendations are.

Translation skills

Revision club

A revision club is a peer-learning exercise where a small group of translators get together to sharpen our translation skills. This normally involves one person translating a document as practice and the others reviewing it for potential improvements. It can also take the form of a ‘slam’, where everybody in the group translates the same text and then compares versions.

It was my turn to choose the text this time, and the text I picked was about organic linen production. It was, at first glance, a fairly straightforward text, with some tricky phrasing but a message that was, overall, quite clear. The fun and games started when we came to some of the flax-processing terminology. As you might be aware, fibre-processing is something that I do have an interest in, but even I had to look up some of the terminology to make sure it was exactly right. Like any good translator, I consider both accuracy and fluency essential, and this text was an interesting challenge on that front.