Farewell to Alastair Chisholm

26 March 2026

CIWEM’s outgoing director of policy reflects on nearly 27 years with the institution

Alastair Chisholm, CIWEM’s director of policy, will be leaving us in March. He joined the institution in 1999 as a policy officer, became head of policy and communications in 2014, and has been in his current role since 2018. Here he reflects on nearly 27 years of shaping CIWEM’s policy voice and looks to its future role.

What changes in environmental policy during your time at CIWEM have felt most significant?

The increased recognition at policymaker level of nature-based solutions, and working with distributed interventions at landscape scale as a serious part of the response to a wide range of risks and pressures. Around the time that I began leading the policy team, we were in the midst of the then prime minister and housing secretary proclaiming we should be dredging all the rivers as a flood risk management response. CIWEM was part of a raft or organisations who really pushed the ‘slow the flow’ principle to politicians and media, and it’s since become common parlance.

What are you most proud of?

For a long time CIWEM seemed content to get a small handful of meetings with the government and its agencies each year to discuss policy issues, or join in events and round tables. Last year we had dozens of these. We also have regular trade and mainstream media coverage and we frequently represent the institution and members’ views to parliamentary select committees, all party groups and ministers. For a small organisation in a noisy world, that feels like good progress.

Policy change can feel slow and frustrating – what has kept you motivated?

Without a doubt, it’s been our members and the breadth of their focus across the water cycle and land (and wider environmental) management. It means that for me, every day has been a school day and I’ve had a raft of experts to mentor me into being able to articulate an evidence-led, serious position on a range of policy issues I never knew anything about before.

Knowing you’ve got evidence and experience behind you is great for perseverance when it feels like you’re wading through treacle only to arrive at a wall you’re then just banging your head against.

How has the relationship between environmental evidence, politics and public opinion shifted during your time at CIWEM?

The public and campaigners are more influential now because of social media. That’s made issues potentially more highly charged, and the pool of influential stakeholders has grown. News and attention spans shift more quickly and in all of that, sensationalism often trumps considered, detailed evidence.

But at the same time that dynamic has arguably been the thing that’s lifted water up the political agenda. It’s a different balance and a bit of a tightrope to walk – but it’s fun!

What will you miss most about working at CIWEM?

I’ll miss the credibility of CIWEM’s independence and expert status, which is a real door opener. I’ll miss having such ready access to so many wonderful members, as well as my colleagues, who are such a fantastic and committed team.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in environmental policy today?

Learn how the parliamentary process works, build good evidence, practice telling compelling stories grounded on that evidence, make yourself useful to government (and other stakeholders) on solutions, whilst staying free to speak truth to power, and build relationships with everyone you can.

How do you think CIWEM’s role in influencing policy will evolve in years to come?

The Conversative minister, now lord, Michael Gove famously said, “We’ve had enough of experts” but we, the global populace, really haven’t. We’re really going to need them and their solutions. There should always be a role for CIWEM in representing the views of those experts to decision makers.

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Jo Caird is editor of The Environment