CPD roundup: April 2026

Welcome to April’s CPD round-up!

This is where I share a quick summary of the CPD I’ve completed during the month.

What is CPD?

CPD is short for ‘continuing professional development’, and it’s a requirement of many different professions, taking a slightly different form in each profession. Essentially, it’s a commitment to carry on learning about and improving your knowledge and skills even after you have finished your formal education. It can take a variety of different forms, from formal training and courses to self-directed studying and even collaborative activities like peer revision and mentoring.

This commitment to ongoing, iterative and intentional improvement is one of the things that sets human translators apart from machine translation. Where machine learning systems can only improve by absorbing ever more data, human translators learn by identifying weaknesses and exchanging ideas and views about best practices.

The Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) recommends that all members, including Qualified Members (MITIs) like me, do at least 30 hours of CPD per year. The Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) also has the same requirement, and Chartered Linguists like me can have their CPD records audited at any time to make sure we are staying on track.

As a specialist sustainability translator, I normally end up doing rather more than just 30 hours, 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

Biodiversität im Fokus: Praxisnahe Umsetzung der überarbeiteten ESRS E4, SBTN & TNFD (DFGE Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy)

Biodiversity in focus: Practical implementation of the revised ESRS, SBTN and TNFD

Recording: https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/5926901387367065259

A fairly introductory webinar (and a fairly short one, at about 45 minutes), but it's always interesting to have the basics refreshed! In particular, it was useful to have the different levels of biodiversity (ecosystem – species – genetic) and how they are interrelated reiterated. One thing I did particularly appreciate is that the speakers went through a few critical sectors that are particularly sensitive to biodiversity issues.‍

Comment soutenir les agriculteurs ? en partenariat avec Le Tour des Terroirs et PourDemain (Hectarea)

How to support farmers: In partnership and Le Tour des Terroirs and PourDemain

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu2MskurV9U

This  was an interesting webinar, co-hosted by one organisation that I was familiar with and two that were new to me. It took an interesting approach, by focusing on how farmers can be supported at different stages of their journey. Hectarea provides support by providing investment, PourDemain focuses on helping farmers transition to organic farming, and Le Tour des Terroirs helps reestablish connections between farmers and the food system more generally.‍ ‍

Die Energiewende als Kommunikationsaufgabe (Fernuni-Hagen)

‍The energy transitions as a communicative task

Recording: https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/forschung/schwerpunkte/eun/aktuelles-termine/videos/video-Wolling.shtml‍ ‍

Quite a dense presentation, as I've come to expect from this particular organiser ! The core of this study was a travelling exhibition about the energy transition. A few different questions were considered, including particularly what sorts of factors influenced whether members of the public decided to attend the exhibition. There was a lot of data, but the most interesting thing from my perspective was that those who were concerned about the risks of the energy transition (i.e. more pessimistic) were more likely to access general information about it (through various sources), whereas those who felt more optimistic about our ability to succeed in the energy transition were more likely to attend the exhibition. In the end, it seems unlikely that this sort of exhibition would be able to completely change someone's mind, but it did seem to bolster the confidence of people who were already optimistic. There were some interesting questions in the Q&A about where communicative efforts should be focussed.‍ ‍

Von der Theorie zur Praxis: Erfolgreich durch den CSRD-Prozess (Glacier)

From theory to practice: navigating the CSRD process successfully

Recording: https://www.glacier.eco/resources/deepdive-erfolgreich-durch-den-csrd-prozess

Part of a series of "Deep Dives", the main focus of this webinar was a case study of how the A1 group implemented its CSRD process. It was detailed and practical, going through each step of the process. The session also opened with a brief discussion of the Omnibus proposals, and something that came through clearly in the case study is how frustrating the uncertainty around shifting regulatory requirements really is. But the speaker also emphasised that the process was as much an opportunity as a challenge and also recommended (like many do) involving the relevant stakeholders as early as possible.

Conférence FARM 1 - Interroger : le monde en 2030 (Fondation FARM)

FARM Conference 1: What will the world look like in 2030?

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMWezaV7kZA

An interesting and wide-ranging session, intended to set the tone for an entire conference. The three panellists discussed what the world will/could look like in 2030 and beyond, considering the question from the perspectives of population levels, shifting agricultural conditions as a result of client change and international political relationships. There's too much to summarise here, but I found Tania Sollogoub's contributions on how global sentiments may affect national alignments really interesting, if a little abstract.

Réalisez l'ACV de votre produit/service (Altopi)

Carrying out the LCA of your product/service

Recording: https://app.livestorm.co/altopi/webinaire-realisez-lacv-de-votre-produitservice/live

Direct and to the point - just the way a webinar should be! This presentation really "did what it said on the tin". It talked about what a life-cycle analysis (LCA, or ACV in French) is, how it differs from some of the other analytical models and broke down all the different steps of carrying one out. It concluded by talking about how LCAs can be used to reduce the environmental impact of a product or service, which I always think is worth highlighting.

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.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my revision club has always tended to focus on texts relating to sustainability, and this month was no exception! We looked at a text about the postponement of the EU's PFAS ban. The tone was the most interesting thing about this text – it was from quite a pro-business publication, so deciding how exactly to translate some of the more colourful rhetoric was challening!