BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN
WHAT IS
BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN?
BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN?
FROM 2023, DEVELOPERS HAVE TO DELIVER 10% BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN ON NEW PROJECTS IN ENGLAND.
Why Invest in Biodiversity?
We're using up Earth's resources at an unsustainable rate - BNG is designed to halt nature's decline.
In 2021, the government published a review of our biodiversity – that is, the health of our natural environment. This report warned that we’re currently using up Earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate. Now, this might not seem like news – most environmental organisations have been shouting about it for decades, but this official government report, written by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta - an economist, not an environmentalist - was pretty ground-breaking in its conclusions.
The Dasgupta report explored how important a healthy environment is for our economy – biodiversity improves the productivity of our farms, our mental and physical health, our fish stocks, water quality and many other things besides. Dasgupta said that we urgently need to invest in nature, suggesting the government should lead the way by setting clear standards that force companies and organisations to protect and restore the environment. Enter Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)...
The Dasgupta report explored how important a healthy environment is for our economy – biodiversity improves the productivity of our farms, our mental and physical health, our fish stocks, water quality and many other things besides. Dasgupta said that we urgently need to invest in nature, suggesting the government should lead the way by setting clear standards that force companies and organisations to protect and restore the environment. Enter Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)...
HOW TO ACHIEVE BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN
BASELINE
Understand the type, location and value of biodiversity on your land before work begins.
MITIGATE
Identify working practices and offsetting opportunities that improve biodiversity.
PROTECT
Carry out maintenance or put in place management strategies to protect the gains.
developers will deliver a positive benefit to the natural world.
What is Biodiversity Net Gain?
BNG isn't just a buzzword from the Environment Bill - it's a strictly-designed plan which delivers results.
'Biodiversity Net Gain’ isn't the most obvious phrase to get your head around. To picture it, you might find it helpful to first think about what 100% Biodiversity Net Loss would look like...
If you took a plot of land and removed all of the biodiversity on it - that is, the animals, plants and other life (fungi, bacteria etc) - for example by bleaching the soil, concreting over it then maintaining a regular regime of pesticide spraying, that would be 100% Biodiversity Net Loss. It would also be a truly awful idea.
10% net gain is the opposite - rather than losing biodiversity when land is developed, we actually see a small improvement in the amount and diversity of wildlife on site or in the local area. For example, a new wildflower meadow could be planted by the car park, a pond could be created nearby, and the development could use swift bricks in the walls to provide nesting places for these birds. The biodiversity destroyed by the new housing would be evened out by all those interventions, and then a little bit of extra biodiversity - 10% (or more) - would be added on top.
Biodiversity Net Gain doesn't only describe an improvement in the quality of an ecosystem - BNG is also a carefully-designed set of measures that developers must follow to achieve those gains. If these are implemented correctly, we might begin to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss in the UK.
Key BNG Facts
- Biodiversity Net Gain is set to become law in 2023
- It will be part of the Town & Country Planning Act
- It will be based on the Biodiversity Metric 3.1 standards
- 3.1 is a tool to explore the biodiversity potential of your site
- You may combine 3.1 with other standards, but must demonstrate uplift
Delivering BNG on site is likely to be your cheapest option. We can help you achieve that.
ONSITE, OFFSITE, CREDITS OR LAND BANK?
You might have noticed that we’ve referred to delivering net gain on site and off site (offsets). The new rules account for the fact that it is difficult to deliver BNG at certain sites, so what are all your options?
Onsite BNG
Offsite BNG
Biodiversity Credits
Land Banks
Onsite BNG
Onsite Biodiversity Net Gain
This is usually the cheapest way to deliver biodiversity net gain, as you already own the land. You can create new habitats within its footprint and improve or restore existing habitats to hit that BNG target.
We’ve often seen developers advised that onsite BNG is impossible when, with a little creative thinking, it’s very easy to achieve. What’s more, adding to the biodiversity on site is good for your client, improving the health and wellbeing of those who will use the area.
According to Natural England, local planning authorities tend to prefer onsite BNG rather than offsets. This means you’ll be more likely to get an application approved with onsite BNG.
Offsite BNG
Offsite Biodiversity Net Gain
You’re also allowed to deliver biodiversity net gain locally, off site.
If you own land nearby, or form a partnership with an organisation which does (see also Land Banks), you can offset the damage done to the onsite ecosystem by improving offsite biodiversity.
You’ll still need to deliver 10% net gain, so the total biodiversity after the project has finished across the two sites will need to be at least 10% higher than when you started.
Biodiversity Credits
Biodiversity Credits
Your third option, which the government has deliberately priced at a premium to discourage its use, is buying biodiversity credits.
Credits make the whole process much easier as, although you’ll still need to keep track of your onsite biodiversity, you won’t need to coordinate with a second site or deliver an uplift, only buy enough credits to deliver 10% net gain. These credits will be sold by organisations that make it their business to improve biodiversity at sites across the UK.
As they’re such an easy solution to use, and don’t encourage developers to think as hard about mitigation, Natural England suggests that it may be harder to get a planning application through with credits. Improper use may also lead to accusations of greenwashing, so be warned that they may pose a PR risk.
Land Banks
Land Banks
There’s actually a fourth option which isn’t widely-publicised and falls between the other camps – land banks.
These are plots of land that are bought up and restored, with a view to selling the biodiversity uplift on the market to developers at a later date. They’re not credits, so they aren’t as expensive, and there may be plots local to your project, which helps keep the planning authority happy.
However, with land banks, there’s no guarantee they’ll exist nearby, or be big enough to offset your project. The land must have been bought and restored with the stated goal of delivering BNG, and this should be measured. These sites lack the sales benefits of delivering net gain on site or the PR boost of doing your own offsite work.
SAVE MONEY BY CONSIDERING BNG from the earliest stages of a development.
How Do I Deliver Biodiversity Net Gain?
BNG is designed to be simple to deliver, when you partner with an ecological consultancy.
So let’s get down to the bottom line – what do you need to consider, to deliver biodiversity net gain? If you partner with an ecological consultancy, they’ll do the heavy lifting for you – carrying out a biodiversity baseline survey, mapping out the different habitats, explaining to you the best places for development, which would minimise impact on the local environment (reducing your net gain costs). They’ll also suggest potential habitat creation and restoration strategies, whether you’re planning on delivering these onsite or offsite, to hit that magic 10% goal. They may be able to perform this habitat restoration and creation work themselves (like Ecosulis), or subcontract it.
Any habitats created or restored during this work will need to be protected for at least 30 years to meet the legal requirements, which is worth considering for leased land. An offsite solution might be better for those projects, where you can guarantee future protection with a ‘conservation convenant’. Whenever you’re delivering net gain, the site will be added to a national register of ‘net gain delivery sites’, and your plans for net gain will be stored in an official ‘Biodiversity Gain Plan’.
BS 8683 is a new British Standard for the process of planning and implementing net gain – it may help your planning application to prove that you have followed the correct procedures, and this standard offers guidance for how to effectively deliver net gain.
It's recommended that you consider net gain from the earliest stage of development to keep costs down – you can even ask vendors to write net gain clauses into land sale contracts. But why is it important to consider early on? If you buy a site with a fragile ecosystem or high biodiversity, it may be much more expensive to deliver net gain. In contrast, degraded ecosystems like intensively-grazed pastures could be cheap to restore, even helping to offset biodiversity loss on other sites.
Any habitats created or restored during this work will need to be protected for at least 30 years to meet the legal requirements, which is worth considering for leased land. An offsite solution might be better for those projects, where you can guarantee future protection with a ‘conservation convenant’. Whenever you’re delivering net gain, the site will be added to a national register of ‘net gain delivery sites’, and your plans for net gain will be stored in an official ‘Biodiversity Gain Plan’.
BS 8683 is a new British Standard for the process of planning and implementing net gain – it may help your planning application to prove that you have followed the correct procedures, and this standard offers guidance for how to effectively deliver net gain.
It's recommended that you consider net gain from the earliest stage of development to keep costs down – you can even ask vendors to write net gain clauses into land sale contracts. But why is it important to consider early on? If you buy a site with a fragile ecosystem or high biodiversity, it may be much more expensive to deliver net gain. In contrast, degraded ecosystems like intensively-grazed pastures could be cheap to restore, even helping to offset biodiversity loss on other sites.
Rewilded ecosystems have much lower maintenance costs.
Top Tips for Delivering BNG
We’ve picked up some great tips from industry insiders on how to deliver biodiversity net gain efficiently.
Protect, don't Restore
Make Sustainable Habitats
Connect Neighbours
Visual Marketing
Attract Premium Clients
Protect, don't Restore
Protect, don’t Restore
The economist Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta said ‘it is less costly to conserve Nature than it is to restore it’ – it’s a common mantra in conservation and it’s likely to apply to your site.
The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) recommends that your first step should be to focus on avoidance – what can you do to reduce your ecological footprint during site works and the resulting site’s impact on the environment?
Be aware that there may be irreplaceable biodiversity onsite which could be hard or impossible to offset elsewhere – a good baseline survey from a reputable ecological consultancy should identify this for you and avoid a PR disaster!
Make Sustainable Habitats
Make Sustainable Habitats
If you’re trying to create new habitat, it’s better to make something which is going to last rather than manufacturing an ecosystem which isn’t suitable for the surrounding environment and will need a lot of upkeep to avoid falling quickly into a degraded state.
Sometimes ‘lower value’ habitats like extensive chalk grassland may simply be more sustainable as they’re suitable for the local soils and easier to maintain. It’s worth thinking about this legacy, as it will impact the public’s perception of your brand and the likelihood that your projects will be approved in the future.
Rewilding is a process of identifying a landscape’s naturally-occurring ecosystem and putting in place cheap or free management practices to maintain this habitat. It is often the most efficient way to protect biodiversity over the 30 year period.
Connect Neighbours
Connect Neighbours
Net gain isn’t just about installing bat boxes or creating new wildflower meadows – you can greatly improve the value of a block of habitat to wildlife by connecting it to another similar block.
This means your land can really add to local biodiversity by acting as a missing puzzle piece or ‘wildlife corridor’. For example, connecting two neighbouring woodlands by planting a belt of native trees on your land will be fantastic for local bird populations.
There are hidden ways to unlock biodiversity net gain like this that you might not have thought about – getting an ecologist in at the planning stage can help you understand the potential of a site.
Visual Marketing
Visual Marketing
BNG might sound like a bit of a headache at this point, but it can actually help you sell property, particularly if you’re savvy with the marketing. There’s a demand for greener building practises in both the residential and commercial sectors – Savills recommended in 2021 that developers focus more on green projects.
Biodiversity is the most visible aspect of green building – it’s much easier to see a wildflower meadow or a pond than good insulation – and it looks great in brochures, too, with images of wildlife-rich surroundings improving the marketability of a property.
Biodiversity-positive structures like swift bricks, bat boxes and bee bricks have also been embraced with enthusiasm by the public – they can really help differentiate your project and generate good PR.
Attract Premium Clients
Attract Premium Clients
Step up your biodiversity net gain interventions and deliver more than the targets, and you could attract a premium clientele to your development.
A commercial development with a green roof appeals to a different tier of buyer who wouldn’t have taken an interest in so called ‘brown development’ sites. In fact, Savills says that these brown developments now trade at a significant discount due to their lack of environmental credentials, so investing in visible green infrastructure can make your accountant happy.
Going beyond the minimum 10% net gain or visualising your biodiversity uplift in a client-friendly way can really pay off when it comes to selling or leasing your property. Speak to us to find out more about these advanced BNG solutions.
How to Supercharge your BNG data
The DEFRA 3.1 Metric has been criticised by scientists, but there's a much better solution...
When it comes to biodiversity net gain, the DEFRA 3.1 metric that the government is rolling out is really just a basic starter package. But the good news is that you don't have to rely on just 3.1 - there are alternatives out there which complement it, and offer better value.
3.1 has been criticised by scientists for being inconsistent, unreliable and focusing on habitats rather than the biodiversity which underlies them. 3.1 is built upon a fairly simple list of habitats, their ‘distinctiveness’ and ‘strategic significance’, which are worked on in an ‘official’ Excel spreadsheet (no web-based solutions yet!).
Ecosulis are building a 21st century alternative for a similar price – ours will feature an online dashboard with a beautifully-designed, user-friendly personal portal. You’ll have access to a whole spectrum of advanced biodiversity metrics, which evaluate the real diversity of the whole ecosystem, based on over a decade of research.
Our reports detail the ecosystem connectivity, vegetation structure and presence of important species. We even sync up our platform with the DEFRA 3.1 metric, so you can still get that output to comply with current requirements.
We also offer habitat creation and restoration services, covering the end-to-end biodiversity net gain system in-house, providing you with a really simple net gain solution. If your organisation is committed to improving biodiversity, then our solution will ensure you get there safely, with the data to prove it.
3.1 has been criticised by scientists for being inconsistent, unreliable and focusing on habitats rather than the biodiversity which underlies them. 3.1 is built upon a fairly simple list of habitats, their ‘distinctiveness’ and ‘strategic significance’, which are worked on in an ‘official’ Excel spreadsheet (no web-based solutions yet!).
Ecosulis are building a 21st century alternative for a similar price – ours will feature an online dashboard with a beautifully-designed, user-friendly personal portal. You’ll have access to a whole spectrum of advanced biodiversity metrics, which evaluate the real diversity of the whole ecosystem, based on over a decade of research.
Our reports detail the ecosystem connectivity, vegetation structure and presence of important species. We even sync up our platform with the DEFRA 3.1 metric, so you can still get that output to comply with current requirements.
We also offer habitat creation and restoration services, covering the end-to-end biodiversity net gain system in-house, providing you with a really simple net gain solution. If your organisation is committed to improving biodiversity, then our solution will ensure you get there safely, with the data to prove it.
