Dusty Gedge

Where energy flows, impact shows! This special edition of our Spark newsletter dives into landscape architecture with Lucy Jenkins, a chartered landscape architect specialising in nature-led design. 🌿 Lucy shares her insights on: 🔹 Sustainability in landscape projects: It's not just about planting trees! It's about understanding a site's natural resources, involving communities, and creating spaces that benefit nature and people. 🔹 Common misconceptions: Landscape projects are expensive? Not necessarily! They can be designed for long-term cost-effectiveness and environmental benefits. 🔹 The future of landscape architecture: Landscape architects will play a key role in creating spaces that can withstand the impacts of climate change, such as flooding, heat waves, and droughts. This could involve incorporating green infrastructure for rainwater management, designing for passive cooling, and restoring natural habitats. Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/eJJGJ8TC

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I'd highly recommend this to any Passivhaus designers, such a great example of how retrofits can lead to significant efficiencies, now only requiring 15% of the energy requirement of the original building! #sustainability #retrofit #passivhaus

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🏞️ The Weald to Waves project is establishing a 100-mile nature recovery corridor across Sussex, UK, stretching from the High Weald to the Sussex coast and covering 20,000 hectares of habitat. Inspired by Sir John Lawton's 2010 report, "Making Space for Nature," this project tackles the issue of England's fragmented wildlife sites. Lawton's vision of "bigger, better, and more joined-up" habitats aims to combat biodiversity loss and improve ecosystem resilience. 🎥 In this video, Ivan de Klee (Nattergal Ltd, who I had the pleasure of recently meeting for a Wilding Earth episode!), James Baird (Home Farm, Climping), James Adler (Ashdown Forest), Charlie Burrell and Libby Drew (Knepp Wildland Foundation) share exciting details about this transformative project. 🌾 Buffered by regenerative and wildlife-friendly farming practices, the corridor will initially extend from Ashdown Forest, through Knepp, to the kelp forests off the Climping Gap. The goal is to create 20,000 hectares of connected biodiverse habitats, enabling wildlife to traverse the landscape with ease. I love the idea of Knepp's wild animals being able to access the ocean and graze on kelp seaweed! At the heart of this initiative is the Iford Biodiversity Project Estate, Earthly's founding Voluntary Biodiversity Credit location. The launch of our new Voluntary Biodiversity Credits aims to help secure essential funding for this special project and other sites within this corridor. 🌱 Typical wildlife expected to use the corridor includes: 🦔 Mammals: Hedgehogs, badgers, bats and larger mammals like roe and fallow deer. 🦉 Birds: Woodland birds such as woodpeckers and owls, farmland birds like skylarks and barn owls and waterfowl and waders along river pathways. 🐝 Insects: Pollinators like bees and butterflies, thriving in connected landscapes with diverse flowering plants. 🐸 Amphibians & Reptiles: Frogs, toads, newts and grass snakes finding safer migration paths. 🐟 Aquatic Species: Fish and aquatic invertebrates benefiting from improved river connectivity. This project serves as a blueprint for others to follow and if it can succeed in one of the most industrialised parts of our country, then it can be replicated anywhere! A project of this size involves many different collaborators and sending thanks to every partner below! I’m very excited to follow how this develops! 🙌 Adur & Worthing Councils Arup Ashdown Forest Barlavington Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Environment Agency The Goodwood Group Garfield Weston Foundation Iford Biodiversity Project Knepp Estate Land App Natural England Nature Data Solutions Patagonia Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Sompting Estate South Downs National Park Authority Sussex Kelp Recovery Project Sussex Wildlife Trust The Southwood Foundation Westerlands Wilder Horsham District Wilder Ouse WILLIAM ROBINSON GRAVETYE CHARITY Wiston Estate Youngwilders (🎬 Credit: DEFRA) #NatureCorridor #ReWilding #NatureRecovery

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This article came out three months into us being live as a Responsible Body. seemingly, we are the first active England wide RB. It's been quite a ride and learning opportunity, supported by a fantastic team RSK Wilding and RSK Biocensus. So what have we learned? Here are a few points so far. *very few LPAs seem to be in the same position *there is a marked difference in standards and approaches in the BNG market *it is complex to understand the risk profiles of schemes over 30 years * agility + cadence does not always = quality *while assurance is not confirmed, many are aiming for the best quality they can *the significance of the change BNG will deliver to the development industry is not going to be equal to the scale of impact it will deliver for nature recovery *people have vastly different ideas and perspectives on the ease with which restoration can take place and be maintained *we love the passion of all the actors leading the way on standards and just managing to get things in the system delivered. at all levels. *it's hard to distinguish the current wave of BNG needs from an accurate perspective on future market needs across England. floods and droughts look likely. *there are real tensions over the scale of the market and displacement of delivery *small developers seem to get penalised in some areas because part units are being blocked. Natalie Bryce is the legal brain that makes this possible, with thanks to Richard Howe Anna Smith Jon Davies Elizabeth Clements CIEEM for their hard work up to now. Also, thank you to our prospective clients and their patience as we started. Some of whom will see their conservation covenants come to life over the next few months.

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Really important that the Government's plans for growth through #PlanningReform also support delivery of its missions on #NetZero (and wider #EnvironmentalTargets) and opportunities for all (#GreenJobs). Key will be optimising outcomes across these missions, rather than trade offs.

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What is the role of landscape architects in creating low-carbon landscapes, and what work is required to meet the demands of net zero? In this webinar, using the research undertaken to advise the Landscape and Carbon Report, landscape architect and author Claire Thirlwall, CMLI BA(Hons) Dip. LA will explore those questions. Landscape and Carbon is a vital new report on carbon reduction in the UK landscape sector by the Landscape Institute (LI) and the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI). The report is a call to action for the entire landscape sector, and wider industry, to work together and use its combined skill and expertise to reduce carbon in landscape schemes and works. Register now: https://buff.ly/4dBTKIS #landscapeandcarbon #carbonreduction #netzero #landscapearchitecture #landscapedesign

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Great to be part of an amazing Adler and Allan project team who delivered this case study. Wonderful example of how desktop data and survey techniques can be used to model and verify where blue carbon habitats may be present in Scotland; with the aiming of helping answer bigger questions such as: 🔵 Where could different blue carbon species already exist? 🔵 How do we protect those areas? 🔵 Why are certain species not present, or in bad condition? 🔵 What activities are impacting them (e.g pollution, dredging etc.) 🔵 Where is the best place to locate new habitat restoration project that give them the best chance to thrive? 🔵 How do we create a fair and just market for blue carbon in the UK, that benefits local communities?

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We've just published a brilliant resource! Our Ecology Glossary will help you navigate important industry terms especially if you're involved in aspects of planning or land development. #BNG #ecology #ecologyacronyms #ecologyservices #ecologyglossary

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Great report from CIEEM on carbon and ecosystems. Focuses on habitat management, restoration and creation with a detailed breakdown of the carbon sequestration potential of different habitats Thinking about how this links to BNG, it presents a good reference point to go beyond creating or enhancing the right habitats in the right places, but also giving the carbon capture potential of those habitats proper consideration A few thoughts: 🌎We’re seeing a lot of neutral grassland creation through BNG. As the total carbon capture of each habitat is linked to its overall extent, ensuring low/intermediate grazing levels and no artificial fertilisation seems key to making sure we maximise its carbon sequestration potential 💦 Reedbeds could be valuable carbon stores, so using engineered wetlands to solve BNG, nutrient neutrality and carbon issues seems like an obvious ‘triple-threat’ 💡Could stacking carbon and biodiversity gains be a more effective way to encourage more landowners to consider creating habitat banks/getting involved with biodiversity restoration schemes, and ensure these schemes achieve the best outcomes for carbon and biodiversity? What do you think? https://lnkd.in/eJCFfrFr #biodiversitynetgain #bng #carboncapture #naturebasedsolutions

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Shaping the Future of Natural Capital Markets in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The "Natural Capital - Market Framework: Engagement Paper" recently published by the Environment and Forestry Directorate is a cornerstone document for Scotland's environmental strategy, outlining the evolving dynamics and future potential of natural capital markets. This paper represents a significant collaborative effort, of which CreditNature is a proud participant, working alongside government bodies and other stakeholders to develop a sustainable market framework. Insights from the Engagement Paper: 1. Understanding Market Demand: The document differentiates between voluntary and compliance markets, highlighting current trends and potential shifts. CreditNature is supporting the expansion of voluntary markets, via high integrity nature credits. 2. Balancing Public and Private Investments: A key aspect of the paper discusses how public investment can catalyse private capital. This includes potential blended finance mechanisms where public funding can support and leverage private investments for greater impact. 3. Propelling Market Development: The need for development in less mature markets such as biodiversity and water quality is emphasised. The engagement paper points towards the potential for new voluntary codes or the creation of compliance markets to stimulate demand. Here, CreditNature’s ongoing development of a biodiversity market framework aims to establish reliable, quantifiable and accredited metrics for ecosystem recovery. CreditNature’s key role is to help translate the insights from this paper into actionable strategies to create case studies that demonstrate what is feasible. We have established some of the key market infrastructure needs and are now exploring the challenging topic of stacking and bundling ecosystem services, with the aim of increasing the financial viability of natural capital projects, creating more compelling investment opportunities that deliver multiple environmental, economic and societal benefits. This engagement paper serves as a blueprint for all of us committed to enhancing Scotland’s and the UKs natural assets. By aligning government initiatives with private sector innovation and community interests, it sets out a viable and sustainable path forward, that has potential to generate £17 billion for the Scottish economy, highlighting the potential for both environmental and economic gains from such investments 🔗 Learn more and engage with the initiative: https://lnkd.in/eTC_MTYD #naturalcapital #Scotland #naturepositive #biodiversitycredits #naturecredits #biodiversity

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A key insight from Cornwall's Draft Housing Decarbonisation Strategy is that public awareness of the need for heat decarbonisation is low. Only 5% of people interviewed for DESNZ’s Public Attitudes Tracker were ‘very aware’, and 28% ‘fairly aware’, of the need to change heating system. Half of respondents knew little or nothing about heat pumps, representing significant untapped potential to accelerate their deployment.

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BNG for smaller sites – what do you need to know? From April this year it became mandatory for small developments to show a biodiversity net gain. A small development is classed as a residential development of nine houses or fewer, on less than a hectare of land. The BNG process is essentially the same whether it’s a small or a large development but, for small projects, there is a simplified version of the statutory biodiversity metric calculation tool. It’s a good idea to consider BNG right at the start of any project. Engaging early with environmental experts means we can appraise your land and put forward practical, nature-based solutions that will enable you to gain consent, develop your site and grow your business. Our work often makes all the difference when it comes to solving consenting challenges on your land. Our ecologist Val Gateley says: “Between April and October is a really key time for ecologists to appraise a site because you get a very good idea of the native species that are there and the habitats that would be impacted by development. “You want as much information as possible right at the start of any build project so you can find the path of least resistance. We can give guidance on the best areas to position depending on the habitats, for instance, while my colleague Lisa Sawyer looks at water management. “Knowing about the ecology of a site has never been as important as it is today, especially as ecology issues can often delay or stop building work. It is the future of good nature-led design.” * Do get in touch if you've got a BNG project you would like to discuss. From our headquarters in Chester, our highly experienced team work on residential and commercial projects across the UK. #BNG #BiodiversityNetGain #ecology #landscapearchitecture #SUDS #watermanagement #civilengineer #planning #development #project #business

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👇 This is well worth watching. Clearly it's aimed at promoting Environment Bank's product (which is a good product for off-site solutions) but it also demonstrates how tricky, confusing and frustrating it is and will be trying to resolve #BNG on #smallsites. Even during this webinar there is info provided and statements made which are, I think, not quite right. Most #LPAs have yet to determine small site planapps since BNG became mandatory. When they start to do so I fear its going to be chaotic. 😱 #BiodiversityNetGain #Ecology #Planning

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Community benefit programs & nature initiatives are pretty popular at the moment as part of infrastructure development projects, including in the renewable energy space. This report has just been released by the The Strathclyde Institute for Sustainable Communities (SISC) looking at "Community participation for community benefits from natural capital projects" and co-authored by Rebecca Gowens (who was one of the presenters at the IAIA conference session I chaired re community benefits funds in Dublin a few weeks ago in April). It's interesting reading for anyone involved in #communitybenefits, #nature and #communityengagement space. There hasn't been a lot published around the effectiveness of community benefit programs, so this research is especially valuable in helping provide some much-needed evidence and practice insights. Reflecting that the realisation of community benefits are not guaranteed, a number of lessons are offered in the report. One of the aspects of the report I think is especially useful are ten guiding principles for effective community participation in natural capital projects. These include that community participation should be: 1. Bespoke 2. Legitimate and democratic 3. Inclusive 4. Coordinated 5. Resourced 6. Lasting 7. Proportionate 8. Targeted, timely and longitudinal 9. Transparent 10. Accountable and reflexive #socialimpact

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The first international standard on net zero is due to launch next year. New ISO standards will clarify the net zero transition and give the public confidence and guard against greenwashing. Launched last week at London Climate Action Week, ISO’s Head of Sustainability, Noelia Garcia Nebra said, “ISO takes our role in supporting a net zero transition seriously. As part of our Climate Commitment, we look forward to delivering an international standard the market has been asking for, and importantly, suitable for organisations of all sizes, sectors and geographies.” For more information on this story and how it could impact your organisation, check out:   https://lnkd.in/e34Kr4k2 #NetZero #ISOStandards #Sustainability

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5 Swift Actions for our UK Government: 1. More and better funding for Nature-friendly farming. 2. Improve and expand the protected space for Nature 3. Planning with Nature at its heart for our economy to thrive. 4. Take urgent action to save our struggling seabirds. 5. Restore the UK as a Nature leader on the global stage.

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