News and Comment
From 1st February 2025, Building with Nature (BwN) will introduce updated accreditation fees and revised payment arrangements.
Sintali are pleased to announce new dates for the Building with Nature Assessor training course and qualification. We are now taking reservations on four dates over the next 12 months.
Building with Nature is excited to announce that as of May 2024, it has joined forces with Sintali Ltd in a strategic move to scale and grow its impact across the United Kingdom, as well as expand internationally.
Following recent changes to Planning Policy Wales and its reference to the Building with Nature Standards, we have published new guidance for developers, planners and placemakers working in Wales.
Clarion Housing Group, the UK’s largest provider of affordable housing, has awarded Building with Nature the fifth William Sutton Prize for its proposal for a Green Infrastructure Stewardship Framework and Accreditation System.
The 2023 Building with Nature National Award has been won by PRP Landscape for their design for a pioneering new neighbourhood for Truro in Cornwall. The Pydar Project was announced as the winner on 3rd November at the Landscape Institute 2023 Awards Ceremony in London.
The 2022 Building with Nature National Award has been won by Nationwide’s innovative housing scheme the Oakfield Project in Swindon. The Oakfield Project was announced as the winner on 24th November at the Landscape Institute 2022 Awards Ceremony in London.
Building with Nature are proud to have sponsored the Landscape Institute Annual Awards for the last three years. The Building with Nature category within the Awards is a key platform to amplify the messages at the heart of our approach, showcasing high-quality green infrastructure and placemaking that works for people and wildlife. Discover which BwN Awarded projects have made the 2022 shortlist of nominations.
As world leaders convene for COP27, dubbed “the implementation COP”, councils across the UK are working to deliver a local response to the climate emergency. Building with Nature, the UK’s first green infrastructure benchmark, is supporting local authorities and industry in utilising GI to deliver on climate commitments.
Building with Nature Assessor Sarah Jones-Morris, Director of Landsmith Associates offers valuable insights on how evidence-led Green Infrastructure strategies support public policy and local priorities?
Building with Nature are launching a 1-day training course providing built and natural environment professionals with a comprehensive introduction to green infrastructure.
This new training course supports Building with Nature's call for UK developers and planners to value green infrastructure as critical infrastructure, delivering nature-based solutions that build climate resilience, levelling-up on community health and wellbeing, and securing biodiversity and nature recovery in development.
We are delighted to be collaborating for a second year with the Landscape Institute (LI) to present the Building with Nature National Award, celebrating best practice in the integration of high-quality green infrastructure into the built environment. This award, judged by LI’s expert panel, showcases inspirational design vision, and also champions a commitment to delivering that vision on the ground, ensuring that high-quality green infrastructure contributes to a more sustainable future for both people and wildlife.
As a Professor in Environmental Geography at Northumbria University, Alister Scott is one of the UK’s leading experts with research focused on mainstreaming nature in policy and decision making where he has just completed three years working as a Natural Environment Research Council Fellow. We asked Professor Scott to share his views on the six lessons that governments and decision makers can take from his research.
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new online Green Infrastructure Training for local authorities. With over 230 councils across the UK having declared a Climate Emergency, delivering high-quality green infrastructure is a key priority for local authorities. Local authorities have been telling us that they would like help getting to grips with the practical next steps of how to tackle the triple challenges of the climate, ecological, and public health emergencies.
Five years on from creating the UK’s first green infrastructure benchmark, we are delighted to be releasing our updated Standards today. We have refreshed our guidance to ensure it remains up to date and continues to define ‘what good looks like’, whilst simplifying the framework to make it even easier for industry to use.
We are looking for a Board member with finance expertise and a passion for the environment to help steer this small, but influential, organisation.
Jayne Rogers, Environment Officer at Essex County Council explains how Essex developed a Building with Nature “Excellent” Green Infrastructure strategy.
Andrew McNair, Planning Officer explains how Falkirk Council utilised the Building with Nature approach in the writing of its draft supplementary guidance for green infrastructure and new development, to help deliver good quality green infrastructure.
We are delighted to be launching our new Building with Nature National Award today in collaboration with the Landscape Institute (LI). This award, judged by LI’s expert panel, celebrates developments that have put nature at the heart of decision making.
West Dunbartonshire Council’s Local Development Plan 2 was the first strategic policy document to use the Building with Nature Standards to bring forward local plan policies which put high-quality green infrastructure at the heart of policy making and development strategy.
Building with Nature are delighted to announce a brand new ‘Building with Nature’ category at the Landscape Institute Awards which will put the spotlight on schemes across the UK that are delivering high-quality green infrastructure on the ground.
13 Oct 2020. Gemma Jerome, Director of Building with Nature launches our new film showing how we can build better for wildlife, better for our climate and better for people's health when we are Building with Nature.
August 2020. Building with Nature Chair Professor Peter Madden will be speaking on 15th September at the The Biodiversity Crisis and the Built Environment online seminar hosted by the Good Homes Alliance.
March 2020. We would like to reassure you that Building with Nature is still here and still open for business during this time. We are responding to our clients, customers and partners needs during the Covid-19 crisis and offering support where we can to continue to deliver high-quality places for people and wildlife.
26 March 2019, updated 27 April 2020
Building with Nature is delighted to announce the appointment of the organisation’s Standards Board. Eleven additional members join the Chair, Professor Alister Scott, and will act as the guardian body for the Building with Nature standards.
15 February 2019 Building with Nature is delighted to announce the appointment of the organisation’s Board. Four additional members join the Chair, Professor Peter Madden OBE, and will be responsible for steering Building with Nature as it enters its next phase of growth.
September 2018 Building with Nature were awarded RTPI’s Sir Peter Hall Award for Wider Engagement.
SoSustainable’s Building with Nature Assessor Carol Somper makes the case for prioritising the development of green infrastructure as we build back better from Covid-19.
In the May 2019 edition of the Town and Country Planning Association journal, guest editor Professor Alister Scott looks at ways to mainstream green infrastructure through the planning system. Read our article in the TCPA journal special edition: Mainstreaming Green Infrastructure.
We here from Dr Phoebe Carter, Approved Building with Nature Assessor and Chief Ecologist at Habitat First Group on why Building with Nature is more important than ever.