Building with Nature: What is it?
Members of our team have recently completed the training to become approved assessors within the Building with Nature awards system. It is an award for projects that incorporate high-quality green infrastructure. There are 2 types of awards, one suitable for planning stages, and one for when schemes are built out. It is a high bar to attain this award and demonstrates the dedication of the whole team and high quality of design and collaborative approach to designing green spaces for people and nature.
The following are useful resources:
How it works:
There is an approved ‘assessor’ (e.g. the Landscape Architect on the project who has done the approved assessor training), and then an ‘auditor’ (working at Building with Nature who audits and confirms the assessor’s assessment).
The assessor reviews the scheme, recommends any changes to the design to meet the requirements of BwN, the changes are made, once the assessor is confident that the assessment will achieve an award, the scheme is then passed to BwN for the audit, and the scheme is awarded (or failed). This process is intended to go alongside the design development, as an iterative process.
The scheme works well with the Landscape Architect being part of the design team, but there are also assessors that can take this role independently. It is important that there is a wider design team buy-in to the award as well, so that information from other disciplines is forthcoming.
Do contact Building with Nature, or EDLA team members Michael or Eleanor for further information.