At JS Global we are thrilled to announce we are partnering with top ecological consultancy Middlemarch Environmental. Together, we are helping organisations build their understanding of nature-based risk and create enhanced outcomes for business and nature
A quick experiment – put the words” nature”, “health”, and “wellbeing” into your search engine of choice, and a vast array of articles and platforms will appear, all extolling the benefits of connecting with nature, from healthcare specialists to academia, wildlife trusts and charities, all well researched and referenced on how this provides significant physical and mental health benefits. The list includes reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as improving mood, creativity, and overall health. Add in “economy” to the search, and the results focus on how nature – or ecosystem services as economists like to call it – provides vital underpinning of economic value from clean air, water, food, and raw materials, as well as the cultural benefits of recreation and aesthetic value, which are fundamental to both well-being and economic activity.
Equally, the degradation of nature can create measurable economic downturn, potentially reducing GDP and creating costly problems such as flooding. This could lead to an estimated 12% reduction in GDP in the years ahead, highlighted in a report published last year by the University of Oxford, larger than the hit to GDP from the global financial crisis or Covid-19. The work was led by the Green Finance Institute (GFI), with a technical team involving the UK’s top researchers: the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, the University of Reading, the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).
This is generating a real opportunity - for business to support and even harness the power of nature and to build better outcomes for their employees, the communities they operate in, and the bottom line. We are thrilled to be launching a new partnership which provides a solutions-driven service for companies, to address both the risks and opportunities this is creating. Middlemarch Environmental, one of the UK’s largest environmental consultancies, and JS Global, specialists in strategic sustainability and the business-nature nexus, are partnering to bring expert advice to companies, enabling them to manage nature-related risks and enhance success.
Right now, the nature agenda in the UK has become politicised, with the government of the day according to some reports appearing to be on a “vendetta against nature”. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has continually called out bats and newts, long protected in the UK in recognition of the fragility of the species, as being responsible for holding up our planning and infrastructure development. With the party conference season currently underway, last week the Labour Party was setting out its stall. Whilst the hot topics of taxation and immigration have dominated, Labour’s approach to nature has been commented upon widely. Earlier this year the Planning and Infrastructure Bill brought in to replace existing environmental protection laws with a Nature Restoration Levy, is feared to potentially allow habitat destruction by skipping mitigation and avoidance steps. Critics argue this weakens protections for vulnerable species and habitats, with concerns from organisations like the RSPB and the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP). And ironically it could create uncertainty and ambiguity for developers resulting in slowing down their progress.
On the conference fringes we have seen that energy, workforce and housing issues have also been top of the agendas, but nature events and discussions were sparse. There’s a lot more work to do to genuinely integrate nature into cross-government policymaking and thinking in the way that climate and energy are now. And build real understanding of the value of nature to the economy, and its effect on quality of life, health and well-being of the population, directly reducing costs to the NHS and the welfare budget, and addressing the huge problem of work absence due to stress-related conditions, which according to a recent report from Deloitte is currently costing £51bn per year.
This is where the Middlemarch-JS Global partnership can help. Harnessing Middlemarch’s expertise in biodiversity measurement and improvement with its 30-year track record of delivering high quality services and solutions, with JS Global’s strategic sustainability lens and deep knowledge of the regulatory and technical landscape across sectors, we will provide our clients with practical guidance and robust solutions to manage nature-related risks. We can support organisations to deliver measurable positive impacts on performance for boards, investors and stakeholders, and guide businesses through their biodiversity journey.
You can see the press release announcing the partnership here https://www.middlemarch.eco/a-new-partnership-to-deliver-end-to-end-biodiversity-solutions-for-businesses/
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