New Horizon Scanning Toolkit
24 August 2018
The LIFE SMART Waste project has developed and published a new Horizon Scanning Toolkit that is designed to help environmental regulators to build an early warning system for emerging developments in the waste sector to protect the industry from future criminal enterprise.
The Horizon Scanning Toolkit, developed for LIFE SMART Waste by Cranfield University and Waverley Consultants, is a practical guide that regulatory bodies and their partners can use to:
- build intelligence about waste crime by gathering, organising and sharing weak signals of change;
- create insight into changing criminal behaviours and patterns of crime through assessing, ranking and deepening their understanding of the implications of those weak signals;
- work together to research, plan and deliver action to protect consumers and the industry now and in the future.
The toolkit was developed following a desk-top review of the academic and grey literature which focused on the specific context of horizon scanning applications to identify the salient features and success factors for their adoption in an environmental regulatory context. The literature review provides insights on the organisational approaches and design principles for scanning systems, and reflects on the generic and specific challenges that environmental regulators are likely to face as they seek to develop and implement such as system.
The toolkit provides a structured approach to horizon scanning that builds a clear, consistent and shared perspective of emerging developments in the waste sector and their potential for criminal enterprise. By using the toolkit, regulatory bodies will learn to spot newly emerging trends quickly and to assess what the emerging opportunities for future waste crime are likely to be. They will then be able to act together to minimise the impact of those crimes on the environment, society and business.
The Horizon Scanning Literature Review and Toolkit - and other LIFE SMART Waste reports, tools and resources - are available to download from the project's Publications web page.
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