Opening the Doors to Biodiversity Net Gain. Head of Sustainability & Environment Biodiversity Technical Specialist

Transcription

1 Opening the Doors to Biodiversity Net Gain Lucie Anderton Julia Baker Head of Sustainability & Environment Biodiversity Technical Specialist

2 Welcome Aims: - Present our Opening the Doors policy - Describe the biodiversity & the business case - Discuss our lessons learnt

3 IUCN Sustainable Development Goals Target 15.5 take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species

4 UK Government Halt biodiversity loss by 2020 The first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than it was inherited Moving progressively from net biodiversity loss to net gain

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6 Environmental Audit Committee 7th Sept 2016 The government is committed to leaving the environment in a better state than we inherited it. Brexit doesn t change that. We signed up to the EU Strategy on Biodiversity, that Strategy is ongoing. Dr Thérèse Coffey, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Defra

7 How are we doing?

8 What s the problem?

9 What s the true cost?

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11 Legally compliant development with biodiversity loss 11

12 Protecting some, but not all Insignificant losses

13 What does legal compliance achieve?

14 What s the other problem?

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16 Development Conservation

17 Ebbsfleet Garden 483bn investment in infrastructure projects Hinkley Point Great Western Northern Hub Humber Gateway Great Western

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19 East West Rail

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21 The Alliance EWR Alliance is a Pure Alliance consisting of 3 Non-Owner Participants (NOPs): Atkins Global, Laing O Rourke, Volker Rail Ltd, and the Owner Participant (OP): Network Rail

22 The Alliance Charter OUR MISSION IS: Connect the economic centres of Oxford, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and Bedford by providing a quality railway and integrated transport system that improves regional and national connectivity and increases network capacity. BY: Acting in accordance with our values and behaviours and by creating a high performance collaborative culture through: Inspirational leadership, that creates an environment where everyone can give their maximum contribution; People and relationships, that integrate the skills and cultures of the parent organisations; Systems and processes that provide the very best support for our people; Understanding the needs of the partners, our customers, and our stakeholders; Committing to supporting, training, and developing our team. Caring for our people Celebrating success and having fun Creating an empowered team who have the confidence to challenge and innovate, recognising that this may generate mistakes Setting visionary expectations that are balanced against value for money THAT WILL: Ensure safety is an overriding priority. Bring lasting environmental, social, and economic benefits Deliver the works to meet quality operational and technical requirements including community amenity and whole life considerations Create training, development and employment in the community Deliver a Value for Money solution Add exceptional value to the client, and shareholders. Achieve Considerate Constructors Scheme Excellent, CEEQUAL Excellent (whole project) and BREEAM Very Good (Winslow Station) scores and BS11000 accreditation Achieve demonstrable gains in biodiversity Enhance the reputation of all Alliance Members and generate gain. OUR PRINCIPLES: 1. Best for project. We will make all our decisions on a best for project basis. 2. Win win. Participants will either all win or all lose. Win/lose outcomes will not be acceptable. 3. Unanimous decisions. Alliance Leadership Team decisions will be unanimous. 4. Safety underpins every decision. Make safety everyone s number one priority and transform it into a personal core value. 5. Value for Money. VfM is intrinsic to our approach 6. Best person for the job. We will select on the basis of technical capability and collaborative ability. 7. Stakeholder expectations and sustainability underpins every decision 8. Safeguard the future competitiveness of the rail sector by investing in new and emerging technologies with payback periods that exceed the life of the project.

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24 Applying the Mitigation Hierarchy Embedded within the EIA process EIA is a mechanism to predict environmental impacts, enabling us to prioritise avoidance then reduction through our iterative design process EWR2 Design Integration: option selection process, workshops & 121s with engineers & environmental specialists identifying avoidance & reduction measures

25 The Net Positive Challenge

26 The Net Positive Challenge Achieving Net Positive within the red line will be challenging Continued focused on impact avoidance & reduction Stakeholder input at an early stage before full impacts on biodiversity were known So that our Net Positive efforts support biodiversity measures that really count

27 Opening the Doors For stakeholders to have a say in decisions on how EWR2 achieves Biodiversity Net Gain

28 Opening the Doors - the biodiversity case People working in nature conservation know what s best for nature in their patch And where the real opportunities are By asking for their input, we have a much greater chance of truly achieving Net Positive

29 Opening the Doors - the business case Making decisions behind closed doors doesn t work Costly and time-consuming consultations Easily creates conflict with stakeholders Increased risk of objections & protests Reputational damage; bad press Strong, positive working relationships with stakeholders = good business sense

30 Opening the Doors

31 Opening the Doors Stage 1 Listen

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33 Their Concerns

34 Our Actions

35 Their Opportunities = Our Actions

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37 Link offset targets to biodiversity conservation goals

38 Opening the Doors Stage 2 Stakeholder Input

39 Robust Principles

40 In perpetuity Local Transparency Biodiversity Offsetting Principles Like for better Stakeholder participation Landscape scale Real & longterm benefits 40

41 The principles remain broad because there is no right answer owing to varying local context

42 The principles remain broad owing to varying local context Define the principles in the context of EWR2

43 Offset as local to the loss as possible 43

44 What does local mean? 44

45 What does local mean? 45

46 Our stakeholders defined the principles in the specific context of EWR2 Their definitions = Net Positive Selection Criteria

47 Their ideas

48 Greater stakeholder engagement during the offset design process, and feasibility testing

49 Stakeholder participation is integral to successful design & implementation Communities are often the expert of the landscape

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51 East West Rail s Net Positive Founded on international & UK academic learning Stronger biodiversity case Even stronger business case

52 Lessons Learnt

53 Opening the Doors - Lessons Learnt Finding the key people & identifying the conservation network takes time Keep dialogue & momentum going Build confidence, trust and respect (takes time) Joint surveys on site and off sett project sites Directly address their concerns (early offsets 2017!) Act on the opportunities they see

54 Win:Win Our regulators, decision-makers & local communities feel involved & informed and have the confidence that biodiversity impacts have been fully assessed & addressed Partners not objectors We have early sight of how to minimise risks & maximise opportunities through the EIA process Our project delivers real benefit, & therefore value for money for the tax payer

55 Q&A Lucie Anderton Head of Sustainability & Environment The Alliance Julia Baker Biodiversity Technical Specialist, Balfour Beatty

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