If you have been following us for a while you might have seen us harp on a bit about biodiversity. It is one of our core company values. Our value states that
“We promote, campaign and defend our environment and improve, rehabilitate and regenerate the biodiversity and the environment of our projects.”
The 22nd of May is Biodiversity Day we love this time of year as it is a great way for us to really celebrate our environment. It is a time for us in the office to really think about what biodiversity means to us and our work. How well have we advocated for an increase in biodiversity in the last year and how can we do better.
The slogan for biodiversity day this year is “Building a shared future for all life” and I think that is such a beautiful way of looking at our future because that is what we should be doing every day. Building a better future for everyone because if we have a problem with biodiversity humans have a problem. We are tied to the systems we are destroying and the animals, plants, and fungi we are losing.
This year UN put out 22 actions that businesses can take to help biodiversity. So, we went through all 22 and took a look at how we have done against them this year. Well at first when I was writing this, I thought I would answer every one because some we do better than others. But that is a very long blog post. So instead of that, I thought I would take the time to talk about how we advocate for biodiversity with our work.
How We Advocate for Biodiversity
- We endorse environmental causes we advocate for them on our socials and email newsletter. Bring awareness to them through writing and discussions with clients, colleges, and consultants. Discuss the tough issues on-site and will always advocate to retain and enhance existing vegetation.
- We actively design spaces for wildlife in urban and rural environments. This is done through planting choice. Through the creation of habitats for a variety of animals and through rehabilitation and revegetation of areas to replicate the vegetation type which existed before the development.
- We advocate on all projects for the removal of invasive alien species and do not plant species that are known invasive species.
- We try and reduce and eliminate waste from both our office and during our construction projects. Designing using products that consider both the initial production and the maintenance of the product to ensure a lifelong overview of products. Advocate for site soil reuse and improvement. Soil is the key to ensuring healthier ecosystems and advocate for reuse of other existing products where possible.
As one of our core values, it is in the forefront of our minds when we start a design. We love talking about biodiversity and helping enhance the environment. Feel free to contact us today to talk about how we can make your project a more biodiverse place.