Biodiversity and nature
A global focus on nature is accelerating, with increased recognition that prosperous societies and economies depend on thriving and resilient ecosystems.
Nature is fundamental to the success of your projects, programmes and organisation. Our pragmatic, innovative solutions to enhance nature can help you deliver projects with excellence and improve your resilience to climate change – as well as contribute towards health and wellbeing, meet stakeholder and regulatory expectations, and leave a legacy for people and planet.
What can we do for you?
Identify opportunities and risks
We assess and identify the specific ecological characteristics and biodiversity potential of your sites, including the opportunities to be maximised and the risks to be managed. Deploying our global expertise and experience in nature, in combination with our climate, social value and digital teams, we provide the specialist support you require.
At corporate and project levels, we make connections between nature and your wider sustainability ambitions for carbon, climate resilience and wellbeing so that you can see how to achieve these as one interconnected goal.
Identify solutions
We work with you to explore, plan, deliver, manage and measure the outcomes you’re seeking, and how nature can be part of the solution. For example, across a variety of industries – including power, transport, buildings, water, advisory and international work – we design net gains for biodiversity in ways that increase carbon sequestration and strengthen resilience to climate change.
Our natural flood management projects have protected critical assets and provided local communities with cleaner water and access to green space. We also save capital and operational costs through nature-based solutions by reducing requirements for traditional hard engineering.
Avonmouth Severnside enterprise area, Bristol, UK. We designed improved defences along 17km of the Severn Estuary’s eastern coastline, combining these with 80ha of new wetland habitats.
Sustainable engineering to protect biodiversity and nature
We help you to select the best combination of nature services to meet your needs, in one integrated approach.
We also integrate our nature services with our other services, including climate resilience, carbon reduction, social outcomes and digital innovation, for one consolidated approach that best meets your needs.
Our nature services include:
Our experience
Our nature services team have a wide diversity of skills and capabilities, with excellent knowledge and practical experience in delivering projects across the world.
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Avonmouth Severnside enterprise area, Bristol, UKWe designed improved defences along 17km of the Severn Estuary’s eastern coastline, combining these with 80ha of new wetland habitats. The defences will protect homes and businesses and unlock thousands of new job opportunities, while the wetlands provide important habitat for overwintering birds.
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Cedar Bayou restoration, Texas, USAWe designed a project that reconnected Cedar Bayou to the Gulf of Mexico 35 years after it was originally cut off by construction of a flood defence embankment. We also oversaw environmental permitting and supervised the reconnection, which involved excavating a section of the embankment. The flow of nutrient-rich seawater into the bayou has created a rich marsh and estuarine ecosystem, that itself provides defence against high tides and coastal erosion.
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International airport expansion, Hong KongPlanning a third runway on land reclaimed from the sea required careful planning to minimise environmental impact, including potential marine wildlife impacts. Our design reduced the sea area required for reclamation by more than 20%. Micro habitats built into the seawall provide shelter for fish, encourage coral growth and stimulate species diversity.
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Newtown Creek, New York, USAWe helped to clean up Newtown Creek in Brooklyn by installing street-side bioswales – vegetated, shallow, landscaped depressions – to prevent contaminated stormwater run-off entering the combined sewer system. The solution alleviates pressure on New York City’s grey infrastructure, helping to reduce capital costs.
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South Western Railways, UKOur integrated nature services approach highlighted the value of habitats alongside rail lines for railway operations, including improving the climate resilience of railway infrastructure and helping the rail operator to adopt a holistic approach to biodiversity net gain and net zero.
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Welsh hospital boards, UKFor Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and Powys Teaching Health Board, we assessed the biodiversity value of 14 hospital sites to identify enhancements that connected patients, staff and visitors with nature through biophilic design, as well as to deliver historic landscape, decarbonisation and climate resilience benefits.
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Witches Oak Water, Derbyshire, UKOur natural, biological solution in the form of 31 biodiversity-rich floating wetlands provided preliminary water treatment to increase raw water supply, improving resilience during hot and dry summers, and securing water resources for future generations.
People and Planet
People and Planet demonstrates and quantifies social and environmental outcomes. It combines publicly available data with project data to assess social and environmental factors alongside project priorities. Risks and opportunities are displayed on maps and dashboards, empowering decisions that create long-term benefits for people and the planet.
