Event Summary - What is the Value of Nature in Developments?

At last week’s RE:Futures roundtable event, we brought together professionals from across real estate, planning, law, design and sustainability to explore an increasingly important question:

What is the value of nature in developments?

For many years, sustainability conversations within real estate have centred on carbon. Measuring and reducing emissions remains essential, but the discussion is evolving. Nature is becoming an equally important part of the conversation, not only because of emerging regulation and investor expectations, but because healthy ecosystems underpin the places we design, build and manage.

Nature is far more than landscaping

One of the most thought-provoking themes to emerge from the discussion was that nature is far more than landscaping.

Too often, nature is considered at the end of the design process – a green roof, a few trees or a landscaped public space. In reality, nature is the foundation of our built environment. The materials we rely on every day, from limestone and clay to timber, sand and water, all come from natural systems. At the same time, developments have the opportunity to create habitats, improve biodiversity, reduce flood risk, enhance wellbeing and build more resilient communities.

Measuring nature and its benefits

The discussion also highlighted an important challenge. While the industry has developed increasingly sophisticated ways to measure carbon, nature is much harder to quantify. Frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) are helping organisations better understand nature-related risks and opportunities, but there is still work to do before nature can be measured and valued as consistently as carbon.

Throughout the session, participants shared examples of how nature can deliver multiple benefits simultaneously. Green infrastructure can support biodiversity while improving climate resilience. Public spaces can enhance wellbeing while creating habitats for wildlife. Developments can become part of a wider ecosystem rather than existing separately from it.

The cost and value of nature

The event concluded with discussions around two key themes:

• The cost of nature – understanding our dependence on natural systems, the risks of biodiversity loss, and how these factors influence development and investment decisions.
• The value of nature – exploring the environmental, social, commercial and economic benefits that nature brings to places and communities. 

Perhaps the most important takeaway was that we need to move beyond viewing nature as an environmental issue alone. It’s increasingly becoming a business, investment and placemaking issue.

As the industry continues to evolve, the challenge is no longer simply how we reduce our environmental impact. It’s how we create places that work with nature rather than around it.

Continuing the conversation

A huge thank you to our speakers, panellists and everyone who joined us for such an engaging discussion. The quality of conversation demonstrated the appetite within the industry to continue exploring these challenges, and we look forward to building on these discussions at future RE:Futures events.