ESG in Action: Nature recovery in action: What Belmont Estate can teach business

Henry Rossiter (00:02)

We have effectively removed our foot from the neck of nature and it's breathing again.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (00:09)

Welcome to ESG in Action. I'm Alex Holscroft-Jones, Knowledge Partner and ESG Lead at TLT, and today we'll be exploring regenerative agriculture, biodiversity net gain, and the growing role business can play in nature recovery.  

I'm really pleased to be joined by Henry Rossiter from Belmont Estate. At TLT, we're proud to be one of Belmont's corporate partners. Their first in fact, so we've been working with Henry and the Belmont team for several years now and have had the chance to see their work up close.

Henry, it's really great to have you on the show today. Thank you for coming.

Henry Rossiter (00:41)

Thank you for having me.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (00:43)

So to start us off, could you introduce Belmont and the role you play in helping businesses to engage with nature and biodiversity?

Henry Rossiter (00:51)

Gosh, of course. So at Belmont we are becoming a group of estates across the country where we effectively provide personalised sustainability solutions for business. And that's looking at our three pillars of nature, climate, and community. But the way that I get to be involved is I'm the business development director. And so therefore it's a wonderful excuse to allow me to sort of bring all of those three pillars together and find creative ways to effectively make them work.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (01:18)

And those strands, the nature, climate and community aren't always naturally linked. So how do you at Belmont think about that interconnection and what does it look like in practice?

Henry Rossiter (01:29)

So I think it's a really interesting one because I totally agree with you that I think if you were to think straight off the cuff, no, they're not linked at all. But actually when you look at them in a much deeper way, they are intrinsically linked in fact. And the fact that for any one of them to work, you actually need to ensure that people understand what it is, where it's coming from, and why we rely on those sorts of areas.

In terms of how it looks like in practice, the way that we've started to do it is in terms of our nature projects, we've got roughly a 10,000 acre rewilding project and we are encouraging the community to be able to visit, to learn, to experience and to learn where their food comes from and why nature plays such an important role in effectively who we are and how we survive.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (02:18)

So do you do work with children to get that message early on?

Henry Rossiter (02:23)

So we used to effectively just be children for our guests. In 2020 we launched our Nature Connection program. We worked with about 500 individuals in the first year. And that very, very quickly grew. And we started to realise that actually it's not just children who are disconnected or have never connected. It's actually everybody. It's people who sit in office buildings and just commute from the city to the office and back. It's people who might not have ever had the opportunity to actually get into nature properly.

So in 2024, we started to open that up to universities, to all years within schools, to refugees, to charities, and everybody else in between. And so we normally say anywhere between the ages of five and 105!

Alex Holsgrove Jones (03:10)

You’re working with a growing number of organisations and people are really keen to get involved with Belmont. So I think I'm right in saying that something like 15,000 people have already taken part in your Nature Connection projects. What do you think is driving that momentum and why are businesses increasingly looking to get involved in this space now?

Henry Rossiter (03:28)

I think that's a really interesting question. The 15,000 is correct, of which half of that actually was done in 2025. So we had a massive uplift, mainly driven from our capacity side. And we're still seeing that we're probably going to look at welcoming roughly 8,000 individuals in 2026 again, all again for free of charge. I think what's driving it is probably almost the catch up from COVID. I think that time when we were all locked up in wherever you were lucky or unlucky enough to be locked up. It really made people realise that actually it's the opportunity to get outside, to breathe the clean air, to play in the water courses and all those sorts of things and have that chance to just disconnect to an extent.  

And I think in terms of the businesses, business is starting to realise that we've got... many acronyms as such, in terms of the sustainability framework from the Task Force for Nature Financial Related Disclosure in terms of TNFD and the Sustainable Reporting Standards. And they're starting to come into play. I think businesses who are aware of these are effectively, like yourselves, playing the front foot. They're leading the way in terms of how to be a sustainable business going forward. Not only from the ESG side, but also from a financial point of view.

Ignore nature and carbon off of your books, I think really is from now if not previously, is borderline irresponsible.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (04:59)

Absolutely and there's another type of organisation working with you, isn't there? There's the property developers who are looking to buy off-site biodiversity net gain units.  

Now any of our listeners who aren't familiar with biodiversity net gain or BNG, most new developments in England now have to deliver at least a 10 % BNG. In simple terms, that means leaving nature in a better state than it was beforehand. So sometimes developers can't achieve that on their own site and that's where places like Belmont come in.

So can you talk about Belmont's journey to offering BNG units? What led you to do it? And beyond the benefits for developers, what does it allow you to deliver? Gosh. that's a lot to ask you in one question!

Henry Rossiter (05:42)

No, not at all. BNG is a very large topic. So it all came in under the Environmental Act. It was implemented early 2024. In terms of our wildling project, we started it in 2019. We baselined and we then said, right, let's restore nature.

BNG was sort of a very, very small thing in the background then, but nobody really knew what it was. And so actually... as it came through, through effectively what has been TLT, not that I'm plugging them (!) but it effectively is a guarantee to uplift nature, which is a fantastic opportunity. It's also got the funding already prepaid, and so therefore as a landowner, you're able to say, actually, I don't therefore need to rely on what could be a bit of a dodgy wheat crop going over, as we're seeing with the weather systems and how quickly they change.

In terms of nature again actually from a food security point of view, some of the, we had a group of farmers from Nottingham down yesterday afternoon and some of the questions were a lot deeper than we expected in effect, we were saying how do you think you're going to solve global food security for the next few years based on your taking your land out of food production, to which we sort of countered it and said yes we are to an extent, we're not producing arable but we do still have what we call our ecosystem engineers which are our pigs and our cattle which encourage the movement of seeds and the grazing pressures and allow some areas to turn into other neutral grassland or to scrub or to meadow or alone in mixed deciduous woodland etc. But the uplift in pollinators that we've seen on this site will be securing the conventional agriculture of arable around the site and so that will then mean that there's more chance for food to continue to be produced safely.  

From a community point of view, I mean everybody loves hearing the birds, everybody loves seeing the butterflies. We started a volunteering program from a community point of view in 2019. That started with one species lead. If I look at it today, that has grown to 15 species leads and 340 assistants. These are people who just simply want to come and see nature recover rather than be built on.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (07:53)

Yeah, absolutely. And there is sometimes a perception that these rewilded landscapes or those that are being returned to nature are sort of just left for nature to take over. But there is an element of stewardship involved, isn't there? What does this look like day to day for Belmont?

Henry Rossiter (08:08)

Gosh, I can see why people do think that you just close the gates and walk away, because there is a small element to that, but you still, especially when you're tied in with the conservation covenant and you've committed to delivering certain habitats over the 30 years, you do still need to keep an eye on the grazing pressure and the land management and all those sorts of areas. But it's also from our point of view, we simply love monitoring it. We love looking at how it's changing and gaining all of that insight.

In terms of the species uplift when we baselined in 2019 we found that we had a baseline of 342 species. That was recently accounted last week and we're now at 2739 I think it might be, maybe 38.  

But it's incredible to see and this is partly that there is a genuine uplift because we have effectively removed our foot from the neck of nature and it's breathing again, so you're seeing an influx of everything, but also creating these wetland habitats mean that you get more wading birds basically. We've seen cranes, we've seen a stork, we've seen turtle doves, we're seeing a vast influx in egrets and at the same time we've also started to have mating kingfishers. The fish species have increased from one to five. Otters are now breeding on the site. We're seeing some beautiful things happening and it makes for these wonderful stories that just make people smile.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (09:38)

Absolutely, and you know we've already talked about the importance to people of being in nature, so it's not just wildlife that's benefiting is it? There are so many benefits for people as well and that's you know, individuals teams or communities engaging with the estate. Can you just talk to me a little bit about the programmes you're running for people?

Henry Rossiter (09:58)

So very good question. So the nature connection programme was set up by my mother, and mum always wanted effectively to give people the opportunity that myself and my brothers had. You could run through a field, you could climb a tree, you could jump in a river, you could get muddy knees. And the reason that we effectively started to grow that opportunity was because we quite quickly realised how fewer people do that and whether it's because they have the opportunity or because they just don't know how to.  

A lot of people fear change, they fear something new, and so the idea of sitting and playing some form of games console is much more simple as such. And so we started doing it initially for the children, and then that started to grow. And we saw in some of these more challenged individuals, some incredible changes. There was an individual who came back in 2022 who effectively, they were about seven years old and they'd never had a good night's sleep through the entirety of their life. They might not necessarily have left the bed in a dry state and all sorts of things and they came to us for one afternoon. We got an email from the teachers later that afternoon to say that this individual had fallen asleep on the bus, slept straight through, went home, had later an entire night's sleep through and again the next night, the next night and they got three nights of solid sleep. The parents were blown away. We've then started working at that school more and more and bringing that in, ensuring that individual is there.  

We're seeing changes in how people live their life day to day. We're seeing changes in how playground politics happen as well. Obviously, myself included, I wasn't the coolest kid at school because I found nature interesting. I wasn't interested in Pokémon, et cetera. But when you put these individuals in these situations, and one of the children know how to track, they know something about trees, they know how to build them down. That's the coolest kid in the woods. And it's really lovely to see how that changes and then continues on throughout the playground politics.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (12:12)

Yeah, I mean it's so difficult to maybe measure in data but those stories, those case studies, that you're making a real difference to individuals' lives and you know, who knows what that seven-year old's going to go on and do.

Henry Rossiter (12:25)

Exactly that, yeah - exactly, could be the next head of National England, who knows?

Alex Holsgrove Jones (12:29)

Absolutely.

So for organisations listening who are curious about investing more in nature but aren't really sure about where the value on their return on in investment lies, what's the clearest commercial or strategic benefit that you're seeing for businesses that engage in this space?

Henry Rossiter (12:46)

That's a very good question.

There's a mixture of reasons that businesses look to do this. If we take it sort of pillar by pillar as such, I think in terms of the carbon side, there are calls for businesses to look at their carbon footprint. There are calls for businesses to either start to decarbonise and or to offset and to align with - another acronym - of a Science-Based Targets initiative, which obviously yourselves have done. And it's partly a feel good because it does feel good to do the right thing.  

But also we're seeing other businesses start to increase the percentages that is required on a potential tender. And in doing so, if you want the opportunity to win more work, then you might want to start looking at your carbon footprint. At the same time, we're also seeing sort of a more of a wider approach on the three pillars. We're seeing in recruitment, younger individuals who are coming through, who are looking at which is the best law firm, which is the best accountancy firm to go with, are starting to say, well, that's all well and good that you're going to pay me this, but what are you doing to effectively look after my future.  

And so that is mainly where it sort of plays into the nature side is that whilst the nature side is to be totally honest still slightly misunderstood I think because the idea of putting nature through a metric is actually very difficult, but when that comes the reliance that we have as a society on nature is so much bigger than anything else and we will start to see that move at a much quicker rate.

From a community aspect, again, if we link it back to the volunteering that we do in terms of not only on the estate, but also wider: helping councils with their parks and schools with their playgrounds and public footpaths and ensuring that they're still well established. It's having that impact in community. We're seeing, I was looking at a business today and including yourselves of course, that having those volunteering days included within your package is not only from a point of difference but it's also a well-being.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (14:47)

Yeah, absolutely.

Henry Rossiter (14:48)

The idea of being able to get out into a community and doing something whilst being paid by your organisation is a wonderful benefit. And so at Belmont we're facilitating that and allowing organisations to make it a little bit easier from their point of view. This is what we specialise in. You specialise in law. We'll let you do the law. We'll do the sustainability.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (15:04)

Yeah, and you're so right. mean, having that for colleagues well-being, but also for them to go and spend some time with their teams out of the office. Everybody comes back feeling better and knowing their colleagues better.

So thinking a bit longer term, we've talked about why all the stuff you do with children, that seven-year-old who I'm really intrigued to follow throughout his life to see what he ends up doing. But why is it so important to build that connection with nature early, particularly for younger generations? I mean, obviously, us as a species, we are completely reliant on the nature around us. But is there anything that you want to add to what you've already said, Henry?

Henry Rossiter (15:47)

I think we've probably touched on most of it. I think probably to reiterate the fact that we are so dependent on nature from a food aspect, from a water aspect, from a healthcare aspect and the materials that we live on or use as such. If we look at our phones, they're reliant on various metals which therefore are mined using various chemicals and the list goes on.  

Encouraging younger individuals to have that connection, to have that sound understanding as to where it all comes from and why the protection of a green space is important, so that it might be able to produce the food that they want to survive on as they get older as such, is something that is so simple but it isn't spoken about in the wider media as much as it should be. And it's not taught in schools and so we found that being able to offer something like that for free is hopefully going to give them the opportunity to understand this and so therefore feel the opportunity to protect it as life goes on.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (16:49)

Great.

Well, thanks so much, Henry. Just finally, before I let you go, we like to ask all of our guests to offer one practical tip to our listeners to drive sustainable action so that they can take away something, one or two things, and put something in practice in the next few months.

Henry Rossiter (17:08)

I think that's a really lovely thing to do. I think for me, it's something that I've started talking about a bit more, which is start small. Don't sort of keep your head in the stand. You can start with something very small. We had a round table a few weeks ago and somebody said, why don't we all cycle to work every day? And somebody else said, well, because it's not always practical and it rains. To which I said, well, just cycle on the days that it doesn't rain, or cycle on the days that it does work for you. Wear a coat. Skin is waterproof at the end of the day. Finding those opportunities to take the little wins will still have a vast impact in the fact that you are not turning on what is potentially a fossil-fuelled vehicle. And that can apply to everything from meal planning to travelling and where you go for holiday to potential fast fashion. It's all applicable and if we all take a tiny action it will have a very large improvement.

Alex Holsgrove Jones (18:07)

Yeah, so the power of collective action is just so critical, isn't it? And it snowballs. If you do one small thing, then it leads you to do another. And before you know it, you're actually making quite a big change. Exactly that. Thank you so much, Henry. It's been great to have you here and to hear what's going on at Belmont. I'm sure that everyone that I know who's been to Belmont on volunteering day or been involved with them in other ways has always come back with very positive thoughts.  

Thank you again.

Henry Rossiter (18:39)

No, thank you.  

Alex Holsgrove Jones (18:40)

And thank you to our listeners for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and share. And until next time, keep driving positive change and putting ESG into action.