Building with Nature: a Standards Framework for defining and accrediting high-quality Green Infrastructure in planning and development

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by Matthew Koehorst, Building with Nature

This motorway service area development has been awarded Building with Nature Full Accreditation to highlight successful implementation of ambitious design credentials

Building with Nature

Building with Nature is the UK’s first benchmark for high-quality green infrastructure and introduces a set of standards developed in partnership with industry that define high-quality Green Infrastructure at each stage of the lifecycle of green infrastructure, from design, through to implementation, and long-term management. Building with Nature offers formal Accreditation of both physical development and strategic policy documents.

The benchmark acts as a ‘how-to guide’ for developers and planners to better understand ‘what good looks like’ and mitigate the potential for deterioration of quality as a development application moves through the planning and construction process, and as Green Infrastructure features are maintained into the long-term. The Building with Nature Standards are free to use, but Accreditation includes a fee for Assessment and Audit. End-users include developers, housebuilders, local authority planners, and a wide range of design and construction professionals.

Last update: 30 Oct 2020

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Context

Challenges addressed

Erratic rainfall

Extreme heat

Floods

Loss of Biodiversity

Infrastructure development

Scale of implementation

National

Ecosystems

Area-wide development

Buildings and facilities

Green roofs / Green walls

Theme

Biodiversity mainstreaming

Adaptation

Infrastructure maintenance

Urban planning

Standards/ certification

Location

United Kingdom

West and South Europe

Impacts

Since launching in 2018, the Building with Nature benchmark has Accredited 13 schemes and shaped four Local Plans, representing more than 30,000 homes committed to higher quality green infrastructure and delivery of nature-based solutions. In addition, there have been 160 unique downloads of the Standards Framework from our website, from a range of end-users including landscape professionals, ecologists, planners, engineers and community members. Since 2019, we have trained 70 Assessors to assist industry to apply the Standards and bring forward Accreditations. We moved our training online in response to Covid. We have also trained 30 public sector planners to better understand green infrastructure, and more effectively use tools at their disposal to secure quality features. We are launching a new range of products to support planners in Spring 2021. We have trained teams from 12 regional Wildlife Trusts who are now using BwN to guide their planning interventions and campaigning for a better-built environment. We have secured 10 mentions in published planning policy and planning guidance, including references in the MHCLG’s National Design Guide (published October 2019) and Welsh Government’s Placemaking Charter. More widely, we have 1,593 followers on Twitter and recently we had 929 views of our new video on LinkedIn.