Since launching our first Natural Capital investment strategy in 2019, we have focused on creating new woodlands to sequester millions of tonnes of carbon while safeguarding biodiversity and fostering community collaboration.

Managing data across 17,000 hectares and 80 forests is no small task, which is why we partnered with Cecil Earth, a cutting-edge nature tech platform. By streamlining and centralising data on carbon, biodiversity, and timber, Cecil enables us to make faster, smarter decisions while maximising the value of our natural capital assets.

Overview

Partnering with Cecil Earth we consolidated and streamlined our carbon, biodiversity, and timber data. Organising it into structured models which are regularly checked for accuracy and errors, Cecil Earth allows us to efficiently manage and analyse thousands of data points from forest managers, ecologists, and other experts. 

 

The platform ensures that our data is accurate, up-to-date, and ready for investment and portfolio decisions. We can now view our entire portfolio in one place, reducing time spent on reporting and operations, while maximising the value our natural capital assets deliver.

This evolution in nature tech has significantly reduced time spent on reporting and operations, while providing stakeholders with real-time access to critical data on the strategy’s impact and performance.

Looking ahead, Cecil is increasing its data use cases, potentially including biodiversity net gain baselining for UK assets. As we expand the use of Cecil’s platform, we are continually improving our forestry investments, supporting biodiversity net gain and sustainable timber supply to create long-term environmental and economic value. 

 

 

Nature as a Strategic Asset 

Nature plays a critical role in mitigating climate change. Healthy natural assets, such as forests, oceans, peatlands and soils, are vital for carbon sequestration and ecosystem regulation. Our strategy leverages nature-based solutions, which are recognised as essential for achieving global emission reduction targets and securing supplies of sustainably-produced goods. By investing in natural capital, we contribute to the global effort to address climate change and biodiversity loss and a sustainable supply of food. 

 

Read more from our Tech for Nature series: insert link to first article