A UK-based nature start-up launched this week with plans to carry out ecological restoration projects and develop its own voluntary biodiversity credit standard to drive private investment.

Restore was founded in the middle of 2023, but formally launched Monday this week after six months of preparations, which have included raising £500,000 in funding from undisclosed philanthropists and investors, and building up a portfolio of 76,000 acres of land in the UK that it has taken on the task of restoring.

“As CEO, it’s been a manic six months to get to this stage – but humbling and inspiring for us to have garnered such support, not only in terms of equity – and our inspired landowning clients – but ultimately the fantastic team who have rallied to the cause,” CEO Benedict Macdonald said in an announcement on LinkedIn.

Speaking to Carbon Pulse, Macdonald said Restore will aim to help landowners monetise nature restoration in as many ways as possible, be it through government payment arrangements such as the soon-to-be-launched Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) scheme, optimisation of the real estate market, carbon benefits, or a number of other approaches.

The company also plans to make use of the emerging voluntary biodiversity credit market to fund projects.

“Restore offers a range of bespoke natural capital services that are not available on-market, including Biodiversity Net Gain deals for landowners and access to a major biodiversity credits fund, which pays landowners owning over 1,000 hectares for major ecosystem and biodiversity recovery,” its website says.

Macdonald told Carbon Pulse that the fund referred to on the website consists of a number of private sector investors who see biodiversity credits as an investment object with the potential to see a significant rise in value over a 10-year period rather as a tool to offset their activities.

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Restore will work with owners of significantly degraded land to implement projects, using its own methodology and issuing its credits, Macdonald said.

“There are a number of good emerging methods, such as that of Defra (the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs), but we are creating our own on top of that,” said Macdonald, adding that Restore wants to take a more holistic approach than some other standards.

Restore’s methodology will focus on three metrics for measurement:

• Uplift in biodiversity
• Bio-abundance, which is defined as when a species has a high population relative to the size of the area it inhabits, something Macdonald said historically has been the case with many UK species, for example birds
• The system change brought about by the project, ranging from just altering the flow of a river to completely changing a landscape, for example by turning a field into grassland or scrubland

Macdonald said Restore would seek the approval of the scientific community, government agency Natural England, and the private market expected to eventually buy the credits before it would go ahead and launch its standard.

“We will spend most of this year refining our process for ecological restoration and work on the baselines for our projects,” the CEO said.

“I think it will be at least a year before we issue our first credits. There is a lot of fine-tuning to be done first.”

While the company has received a number of invitations to participate in overseas projects, Restore will for the time being focus on the UK, which Macdonald said was home to one of the most depleted natural states anywhere.

Buyers of the credits, as well, should be British, Macdonald said, predicting that in the coming years landowners will turn to sustainability, conservation, and restoration in a big way as they realise there is a lot more capital coming into that space than where they have made their money traditionally.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

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