COMMENT Urban development has moved at pace to adapt to rapid population growth and the evolving needs of communities. This has driven valuable economic growth that’s enabled businesses to innovate and evolve in their markets, and improved quality of life for many.
But this urban development has contributed to environmental change. Whether it’s the carbon we emit through development, or the erosion of our natural world through biodiversity loss.
Despite its many benefits, urbanisation has fundamentally altered both the presence and quality of nature in our cities. And we’re feeling the repercussions of this today, with increased flood risk, extreme heat and rising food insecurity.
Nature is our first line of defence in the fight against the impact of climate change. It’s also the key to ensuring that urban areas are desirable and vibrant places to live.
As an industry with responsibility for shaping our future cities, we’re already taking steps to change the nature of urban development, to ensure our cities remain places where people want to live and work. We continue to do all we can to reduce carbon emissions and manage the impact of climate change. And by letting nature in, we can help achieve both of these ambitions.
Too much at stake
Done properly, development can be the catalyst to replenish nature in our cities – the prize economically, environmentally and for society is high. Our own research shows the inclusion of quality green space and more trees, plants and wildlife is considered by people as the biggest priority in new developments – only behind transport links.
Recent research from the Green Finance Institute also puts into stark terms what’s at stake if we don’t act; its year-long study found that failure to protect nature could result in a 12% loss to UK GDP through an increased risk of various outcomes, including water shortages, soil degradation and zoonotic disease.
The need to enhance nature in city-based development is becoming more prevalent. The UK government has set targets to improve biodiversity net gain by 10% across all developments. And since 2018, we’ve been working beyond this target, setting a 15% BNG level across Landsec developments as part of our long-standing commitment to creating sustainable places.
Exchange Square, part of British Land’s Broadgate development is an example of how we can bring nature into the heart of a city – creating spaces for play and wellness in the process. Likewise, Sheffield City Council’s approach to urban nature recovery not only enhances the public realm across the city but will also simultaneously limit flooding and other effects of climate change.
There are undoubtably other examples of projects that support nature, but to build the cities we need for the future, we must go further still. As part of our new nature strategy, we’ve set a new BNG target of 20% to ensure nature can flourish through the design, development and management of our places.
Holistic approach
On top of this, our strategy utilises nature’s full benefits to create nature-based solutions to support cleaner, greener energy use and boost our defences against climate change and promote health, wellbeing and community engagement. Whether it’s wild flowers in Bluewater, bee hives in Lewisham or kingfishers returning to the centre of Manchester in Mayfield Park, we’re doing what we can to let nature back into cities.
By taking a holistic approach and measuring the outcomes of what we do, we can create long-lasting benefits for the urban and natural environment. That’s good for business, people and the planet.
Image © Landsec
Mark Allan is chief executive at Landsec
