Chris Jones: Report from 9th British Environmental Psychology Society (BrEPS) conference

The School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham hosted this year’s annual British Environmental Psychology Society (BrEPS) conference. It was the 9th edition of the conference in the 11-year history of BrEPS, which is a non-subscription, inclusive network of (mostly) early career researchers with interest in human-environmental interactions. It was also the ‘last’ BrEPS conference due to a forthcoming name change to the society in light of the advent of the British Psychology Society Environmental Psychology Section (BPS EPS).

As the former supervisor of the group of PhD students who initiated BrEPS back in 2014, I felt a real sense of pride in the longevity of the organisation and the ongoing success of the conference. The breadth and quality of presentations and posters was brilliant and the enthusiasm of the delegates was infectious. Presentations covered the full gamut of environmental psychology, from behaviour in urban and built environments, to conservation and environmental change.

There were a number of firsts too. In addition to around 65 in-person delegates each day, who were regularly split across three parallel sessions for the first time, the organisers also built in opportunity for remotely delivered sessions, which provided greater inclusivity and reach to the conference than ever before and illustrated its broad appeal.

The conference was launched by a keynote speech from Dr Amy Isham (Swansea University) who spoke about aligning personal with planetary wellbeing. Day one ended with an optional foraging or lakeside walk across the University campus, followed by a few drinks and a pub-meal at a local hostelry! Day two started with a keynote speech from Dr Helen Adams (Kings College, London) talking about how to live well under the threat of climate change, and ended with a talk about the new Environmental Psychology Research journal, by Prof. Lorraine Whitmarsh, and the awards ceremony and a chat about the new BPS EPS delivered by me.

The standard of presentations was very high and two presentations ended up winning the best presentation award, which was sponsored by BPS EPS. This was a talk by Dr Elliott Sharpe from the University of Groningen about the role that education plays in political responsiveness and Dr Nienke Bohm from the University of Bergen whose focus was on message framing effects around sustainable seafood. The best poster award went to Roz Davies from the University of Surrey, who just so happens to be my PhD student (!) although I did not vote, promise.

Sincere thanks for the success of this event must go to the University of Nottingham team, led by Dr Charles Ogunbode and Prof. Alexa Spence of the People and Society group and ably assisted by the BrEPS committee. This was a real team effort, powered by capable, motivated volunteers and financed by Charles and his team.

Where next for BrEPS? Well, ‘BrEPS’ is no more but the community lives on under a new name, most likely the ‘Environmental Psychology Network: UK (EPN: UK)’, although this name change is still to be ratified by the BrEPS committee.

We are currently looking for a host for the next conference and for people to join the general committee. If you are interested in either (or both) of these opportunities, I would encourage you to contact me (chris.jones1@port.ac.uk).