About

Building with Nature is an accreditation scheme which sets a benchmark for quality in the planning, provision and maintenance of green infrastructure in new developments – from parks, nature reserves, ponds and rivers, to play areas and street trees.

The accreditation emphasises the social value of the natural world. Alongside environmental standards, it incorporates wellbeing standards intended to ensure local green spaces become community assets, which contribute to a local sense of identity and place. As a representative from Building with Nature notes, “Social equity is a big driver in what the certification trying to do, access to the natural world is a very well-evidenced of indicator of mental wellbeing”. Good green spaces have been shown to improve the wellbeing and can help to build social relationships within communities.

Project details

The accreditation was initially developed by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, in partnership with the University of the West of England. It has been used in different sites in Gloucestershire including developers Persimmon and Bloor on the Elms Park development in Cheltenham (4,000 plus homes) and Chesterton Farm in Cirencester by developer Bathurst (2350 homes). (2)

According to the creator of the accreditation, the impetus for the scheme was a sense that the natural world is often only considered at the end of the planning process, “The sector tends to leave ‘nature’ to last minute, there is a statutory obligation around protected species, but it’s often a last thought, we wanted to engage earlier in the design and planning process, rather than near the end.”

Building with Nature establishes a set of standards related to wellbeing, water and wildlife against which developments are assessed. The standards were designed in collaboration with planners, developers and designers to ensure they can be practically applied.

Certification can be given at any stage of the process, including to developments that have already been completed. Developments that are yet to be built can be awarded ‘candidate status’. Currently, several large Gloucestershire developments, including Chesterton Farm and Elms Park, have been awarded ‘Candidate Status’ in recognition of their plans for green infrastructure. Certification can also be obtained for policy documents, such as Cotswold District Council’s Green Infrastructure Open Space and Play Space Strategy (2017). (2)

Who are the key stakeholders involved?

● Building with Nature
● Developers
● Planner
● Residents

Resources

Building With Nature offers the accreditation. It assesses developments at planning stage and at completion. A ‘User Guide’ is also available online which sets out the quality standards for the accreditation and provides guidelines on how to achieve them, allowing developers, planners and communities to self-assess.

According to Building with Nature, “The key to securing mechanisms and resources necessary to maintain green infrastructure is to explore options as early in the planning and design process as possible. In the best examples, the green infrastructure is designed with low maintenance requirements in mind – partly this is about designing, and indeed building, “with nature,” – so working with the landscape not against it.”

Resources are involved in ensuring the maintenance of green infrastructure, and these will vary significantly from scheme to scheme. However, well-planned green infrastructure should be designed to reduce maintenance costs. Building with Nature also argue that engaging multiple stakeholders through a formal partnership is another way of ensuring proper maintenance in the long term. As Building with Nature notes, “It helps the agencies and actors involved in planning and development to get on the same page and ask the right questions, at the right stage of planning and delivery, to ensure quality is not subject to deterioration or dilution at each subsequent stage.”

Some green infrastructure, such as community gardens and allotments, lend themselves to community involvement in their upkeep – something that can form an important avenue for creating local relationships.

So what?

Impact: What are the outcomes? Who benefits?

Building with Nature intends to provide better well being and environmental outcomes for new developments and their residents. For those living and visiting these areas, high quality green spaces enable residents to engage with the outdoors and live healthier lives. They provide focal points for people to encounter one another and build community connections. The environmental benefits include greater species diversity, as well as better water management. The process can help existing communities engage in discussions about the quality of a new development and the green assets it could offer to those already living in the area.

What are the risks and challenges for initiating and also maintaining this initiative?

There is a perception that accreditation can be a burden. Building with Nature has been developed to be complementary to other schemes, and the accreditation sets out how it aligns with different awards in order to avoid duplication. Its focus on qualitative measures also marks it out from many other schemes focused on quantitative metrics.

Key learning

According to Building with Nature, engaging at the earliest stage of feasibility and design helps to ensure high quality outcomes, “If a scheme ‘designs-in’ landscape, there is a much higher chance that you will be able to deliver a scheme which secures the range of benefits associated with a nature-rich development; in turn, securing benefits for people and wildlife which last well into the future”.