1986

A workshop was held in April at Griffith University involving a environmental practitioners from a cross-section of public and private sectors and environmental disciplines. One of the resolutions of this workshop was to form an incorporated body which was to become the Environment Institute of Australia.

Objectives of the Institute were to:

• Facilitate communication between environmental practitioners from disparate backgrounds and professions
• Promote environmental knowledge, awareness, ethical and competent environmental practice.

It was an exhilarating opportunity for professional multi-sectoral collaboration on a project that would have vast potential benefit to the policy and practice of environmental management. Decision-making by all levels of government, private industry and community groups as well as the educational programs offered by tertiary institutions were interwoven in the complex mix of incentives driving the need to form a representative professional organisation.

Mary Lou Morris

Life Member

1987

The first issue of the Environment Institute of Australia Newsletter (now ‘the Environmental Practitioner’) was published in February 1987. The lead article was entitled “The Need for a Professional Institute”.

In November 1987 the Institute was formally incorporated at the first National Conference and Annual General Meeting with approximately 600 members. This was a remarkably strong response in the short period since the announcement of a new professional body being specifically developed by and for environmental practitioners.

1994

The Australasian Journal of Environmental Management was first published in July 1994. It was the realisation of a long-held desire to provide a professional publication directly addressing issues of policy and practice in environmental management.

In its 20 years of existence, I think the Journal has filled a role that had hitherto been vacant, brought much valuable material to its readers and conferred to the Institute no small credit...

Eric Anderson

Life Member, Inaugral Editor of the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management

2003

The New Zealand Chapter of EIANZ was created with the inaugural meeting on 28th February 2003 in Christchurch. This brought together potential members from various parts of New Zealand.

Read a full account of the establishment of the New Zealand Chapter here →

The small, but growing, number of environmental management professionals in New Zealand looked to the Environmental Institute of Australia for an established organisation in which sustainability and professional ethics were important, and where people from wide-ranging disciplines could meet and share an integrated approach to their work and career development.

Judith Roper-Lindsay

Founding member of the New Zealand Chapter

2004

The Institute established the Certified Environmental Practitioner Scheme (CEnvP), Australasia’s first certification scheme for general environmental practice, and one of the first in the world. The development of CEnvP was supported by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage.

2005

The New Zealand Chapter hosted the Institute's annual conference in March. The conference was held in Christchurch and over 230 people in attendance from both sides of the Tasman.

2012

The Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012 with its Annual Conference in Sydney in October.

2014

New governance arrangements voted in at a Special General Meeting in September establishing a Board and Advisory Council and replacing the Rules of Association.