Mainstreaming nature-based solutions to deliver greater value

Mainstreaming nature-based solutions to deliver greater value

Amount awarded: £8,028,022

Led by: United Utilities

Partners: Affinity Water Limited, Anglian Water Service Limited, Arup, Dwr Cymru Cyfyngedig (Welsh Water), Jacobs UK Ltd., Mott MacDonald Ltd., North Star Transition, Northern Ireland Water Ltd., Northumbrian Water Limited, Ribble Rivers Trust, RSK Group (ADAS, Salix, WRc), SES Water Plc, Severn Trent Plc, South East Rivers Trust, South West Water Limited, Southern Water Services Limited, The Nature Conservancy, The Rivers Trust, United Utilities Water Limited, Water Resources South East, Westcountry Rivers Trust, Wildfowl and Wetland Trust

Nature-based solutions have the potential to provide multiple socio-economic and environmental benefits by tackling flooding, drought and water quality issues at landscape scale. This transformational programme of work brings together multi-sectorial expertise and leadership to collaboratively create and test new solutions to remove these barriers through real-life case studies and facilitate and enable transition of nature-based solutions into business-as-usual to deliver greater value for customers, society, environment.

Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions (MNbS) is a collaborative partnership working to overcome barriers to the adoption of NbS at a landscape scale. We are currently in the first phase of work which involves identifying, verifying, and prioritising barriers preventing scale and actions to address them and we are on track for successful delivery. The scope, objectives, and plan for each workstream has been agreed and initial evidence gathering has begun to understand the current state of the NbS landscape. The headline objectives for each workstream are:

• Understand how to form and sustain collaborative partnerships to mainstream NbS.
• Develop a Total Value Framework and guidelines to appropriately value NbS in the decision-making process.
• Enable NbS through evidence-based changes to policy and regulation.
• Understand the investment models that enable NbS to thrive.
• Increase efficiency and reduce transaction costs for collaboration, funding, planning, designing, implementing, and maintaining NbS.

Alongside workstream activity we are engaging regional stakeholders to understand local contexts and priorities. We are also developing a Theory of Change, decision-making framework, and stakeholder engagement strategy, including communications and branding. Our next key milestone is completion of a briefing note on the current state of the NbS landscape at the end of September 2024.

“Water companies want to use lower carbon and more environmentally-friendly solutions to serve our customers; the know-how is limited and solutions can be expensive for scale. This project will help us to lower the total cost of nature-based solutions, including customers in decision-making and help us all go greener faster.” – Kieran Brocklebank, Head of Innovation, United Utilities

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Resources:

For more information on Mainstreaming nature-based solutions to deliver greater value, take a look at the following resources:

• The project was featured in the guest blog “Strength in difference – How the Ofwat Innovation Fund is supporting equity, diversity and inclusion” in October 2024