As businesses, we navigate complex landscapes, balancing profitability with corporate responsibility. Climate repair and environmental stewardship rightly loom large on most businesses’ agendas. But beyond taking action to reduce our daily carbon footprint, what more can businesses do, as we strive to achieve net zero targets?
Sphagnum Moss
The answer, or at least a part of it, is quite literally buried in the ground. Peatlands are an invaluable ecosystem for carbon storage and biodiversity. Over centuries, human activities such as drainage, agriculture, forestry, and peat extraction have ravaged peatlands from the fen of Eastern England to the Flow Country in the far North of Scotland, leading to significant degradation. The consequences are dire: degraded peatlands release stored carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. In fact, they account for approximately 5% of the UK’s national emissions.
Restoring peatlands isn’t just an environmental duty; it’s an economic imperative. With over 80% of UK peatlands in a degraded state, restoration is crucial for climate repair, biodiversity preservation, water quality improvement and flood prevention.
Thankfully, UK businesses increasingly recognise the mutual benefits of investing in natural capital, and the value that ecosystem services like flood prevention provide to society. However, peatland restoration comes with a hefty price tag. While public funding exists, it falls short of covering long-term restoration needs, including the research, monitoring and maintenance needed to ensure that peatlands continue to contribute to carbon emission reductions well into the future.
This is where private investment has a key role to play. Activities like re-wetting degraded areas and revegetating damaged sites demand financial resources. Blended finance – a mix of public and private investment – is essential for peatland restoration projects.
Ridge Carbon Capture has recently completed restoring 450 hectares of peatland in Northeast Cumbria, the first privately developed and funded peatland restoration project in the UK Government’s Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme (NCPGS). The Ridge Graham project is a good example of the impact blended finance can have in environmental conservation, as well as high-integrity carbon markets.
Before and After Reprofiling
Under the IUCN UK Peatland Code, businesses can become more involved in supporting peatland restoration by purchasing Peatland Carbon Units. These units can be purchased voluntarily by UK-based businesses and individuals to mitigate their carbon footprint. They can be used to offset, compensate for, or balance a given company’s emissions – all the while supporting UK nature on sites which investors can visit, and see with their own eyes the impact of their funding.
Species Surveys
As a nation, we can take further steps to restore UK peatlands, reduce domestic emissions and contribute to climate repair. Including Peatland Carbon Units in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS), which many organisations currently advocate, would further encourage peatland restoration. This inclusion would open opportunities for more businesses to invest in UK-based nature recovery and environmental uplift.
This policy change would also be a way to link peatlands to the City of London’s C4S initiative, launched by the Lord Mayor and LCAG earlier this year. C4S is linked to the UK ETS, so registered C4S participants can purchase emissions allowances and remove them from the ETS. The C2Zero Carbon Cancellation Service has a real impact, with tonnes of CO2 “stopped from being released by big polluters, forever.” These purchases drive down the pool of available allowances that can be used by the highest-emitting industries nationally. Including UK peatland units within the UK ETS, as more environmentally-focused allowances, would give businesses the ability to purchase allowances that directly benefit UK nature – rather than simply trading with other emitters.
Bolton Fell Moss school trip
As well as climate repair, nature recovery and improved water stewardship, effective community engagement is also crucial, ensuring projects give back to local communities. At Ridge, we work with communities and support key projects in local areas, such as with local schools and environmental groups. An example of this is RCC’s series of ‘Peatlands Days’ at Bewcastle Primary School, which involved a range of activities including field trips to a local raised bog, in-classroom experiments and artistic activities. Our Community Partnership Team ensures our projects make a real difference to real people through initiatives such as this.
As a society, we are waking up to the imperative of protecting the vital ecosystems provided within restored peatlands. Businesses across the UK are stepping up to the plate. They are recognising their role in peatland restoration, and businesses within livery companies can lead by example. I encourage the Companies and their members to seize the opportunity to safeguard our peatlands as part of their environmental strategies, ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.
Betsy Glasgow-Vasey