The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, yet society and business are hugely reliant upon it. Restoring lost nature and biodiversity is as urgent as removing carbon; nature must be allowed to flourish again.
“Fixing our relationship with nature is one of the most urgent challenges of our age. Climate change may grab more headlines, but the depletion of the natural world is an equally severe emergency and one very much fuels the other.” says Tony Juniper CBE, Chair of Natural England in the State of Natural Capital report.
But what is the role of business in confronting this challenge and reversing nature and biodiversity loss? More importantly, how can business help and is there a commercial upside in doing so?
The EBN Nature Restoration Programme will show you how your business can help nature and benefit commercially at the same time.
The EBN Nature Restoration Programme is a unique sponsorship-led initiative designed to create access to UK regional and local nature projects for business. With our guidance, insight and connections it will strengthen your sustainability credentials, create compelling content for storytelling, enhance brand reputation and provide a platform for staff, customer, and stakeholder engagement.
Make no mistake; your support is urgently needed as we face a huge crisis in nature and biodiversity. The UK was once a wooded isle, 98% covered with trees some argue. Today we enjoy just 13% tree cover and in a county like Cornwall it is down to just 9%. This matters.
What is the solution to this crisis?
In the UK many landowners, including financial institutions, investors, private companies and independent farmers are rapidly creating nature and biodiversity restoration projects that are helping to reverse the problem. Many are also embracing regenerative agriculture, which includes minimising soil disturbance, keeping living roots in the soil, increasing plant diversity, reducing use of pesticides and integrating livestock whilst maintaining optimum food production.
What is the role of business in this system?
Businesses can support UK nature and biodiversity restoration projects through the Environmental Business Network, increasing funding for this crucial sector.
Other than doing the right thing, there are several commercial upsides to joining in with the EBN Nature Sponsorship initiative.
Most of these fall within the following areas:
- Strengthening (perhaps even creating) the sustainability credentials of a business
- Delivering inspiring and compelling story telling content to share with key stakeholders
- Enhancing brand reputation in the eyes of customers, investors and shareholders
- Creating a unique staff and customer engagement platform
- Building social value by supporting local, often rural and economically disadvantaged communities
Carbon and BNG credits
Through our partners Nature Broking we can offer clients access to both the UK (our preference) and international carbon offsetting projects. All will have gone through the Nature Broking due diligence process and projects will be verified by leading bodies in this space including Verra and Gold Standard, or the Carbon, Peatland and Woodland Codes in the UK.
We can also create a blended approach to the market whereby a client is able to purchase carbon or BNG credits and become a sponsor of a UK project as part of the same programme.