Successfully Building with Nature

Successfully Building with Nature Erected as the UK’s first green infrastructure standard, the Building with Nature benchmark makes it straightforward for those charged with delivering, designing and sustaining green infrastructure to carry out ecosystem services for wildlife and people.

The Building with Nature Benchmark

The Building with Nature benchmark provides a basic evidence base to:

• Assist project teams in engaging with stakeholders
• Communicate throughout the design process
• Present the goals of the development schemes to relevant local planning authorities

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The Building with Nature standard offers a separate evaluation of the development’s delivery of good green infrastructure via an evidence-based technique.

The benchmark was developed through a strong partnership between Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and the University of the West of England. The Building with Nature Standard was launched to take a fruitful and hands-on approach to an environmentally-friendly development that cares about context and location and is sensitive to long-standing management and maintenance.

The Four Elements of Building with Nature

Lockhart Garratt’s proud to uphold the four elements involved in the 23 standards of Building with Nature.

1. Core

Within the Building of Nature benchmark, this set of five standards considers the fundamentals of green infrastructure designs. It takes into account the multi-functionality, design, long-term management, resilience, and relevance of an infrastructure scheme.

2. Wellbeing

Lockhart Garratt is committed to the wellbeing standards of the Building with Nature benchmark. This element considers the continual evaluation of public benefit in respect of the marketing of lifestyles and healthy living.

3. Water

The standards for water consider how sustainable drainage can be built into the green infrastructure network and boost the network within the guidelines set out in the benchmark.

4. Wildlife

The wildlife element bears in mind delivery, safety, and improvement of habitats, consideration of applicable species, and the connectivity of neighbouring habitat systems.

Lockhart Garratt is proud to be able to officially evaluate and certify projects via the standard. These four elements offer the impartial evidence base showing how projects surpass the obligatory conditions for biodiversity net gain to deliver authentic gains to a broader green infrastructure.

Lockhart Garratt’s Approach to Building with Nature

Lockhart Garratt approaches the benchmark methodically, maximising the valuable resources in roads and paths to establish rural and urban community connections.

The team at Lockhart Garratt has worked on projects that consider a need for a multi-use greenway and proposed developments of parks and small villages to residential developments. These projects are performed all while promoting and maintaining the standards proposed by the Building with Nature benchmark.