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

See the Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions project website for more information.

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.

“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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Update from the project (July 2025)

The Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions (MNbS) programme is progressing well and remains on track to deliver its intended outcomes. Over the past six months, we’ve focused on three key areas: (1) developing briefing notes that summarise the enablers and recommendations identified across our workstreams; (2) drafting plans for the regional tests; and (3) scoping a Tracked Programme of Nature-based Solutions to build the evidence base for NbS and support the evolution of regulation in preparation for PR29. Highlights from the past 6 months include launching our LinkedIn group and weekly MNbS Bulletin which are supporting greater engagement with the programme. Our website is launching in July 2025 to enable wider dissemination of our programme outputs. We’ve also made significant progress on the Common Value Framework (CVF), which will provide a consistent approach to valuing the benefits of NbS. The draft CVF is due to be published in July 2025 and will be a key tool for informing PR29 planning. We have also further socialized the programme with external stakeholders via industry events, including Flood and Coast Conference, European Wastewater Management Conference (presentation and panel session), and an article in the Ofwat Innovation Fund’s most recent Learning Report, “From source to sea”. 

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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
• Download the project’s briefing notes and register your interest in hearing more from the project here.
• Visit the project’s website for more information.
• This project was featured in the From Source to Sea Learning Report