Rural landowners play a pivotal role in the shaping of a place. The positive societal and environmental impact of well managed rural land is substantial and often underestimated.
Increasing political urgency around the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss has placed new pressures on land management, meaning there is a new need for clients to assess, monitor and importantly, communicate the natural and social value of their rural assets. This will not only demonstrate ownership accountability but crucially it will highlight the risks and opportunities presented by the estate’s natural and social capital.
SOLUTION
Savills Rural Research has developed the Whole Estate Reporting process, which is underpinned by natural capital and sustainability principles. The process uses GIS and survey information to quantify an estate’s headline natural and social assets, which are used to generate key ecosystem service scores. These scores feed into a Whole Estate Report, which provides a versatile yet consistent framework for reporting against holistic estate performance criteria. The report draws on Savills 18 years’ experience of estate benchmarking, whilst utilising the latest thinking in key performance indicators and natural capital analysis. The focus is on generating clear and comparative metrics and infographics, which aid stakeholder engagement, and improve decision making.
RESULTS
To date, this process has been completed for over 50 estates, some part of larger institutional portfolios, others bespoke private clients. The benefit of a Whole Estate Report is that it is based on a standardised data-driven process with a final report that can be shaped to fit the client’s needs. For example, clients have used their report to shape wider portfolio ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategy, to communicate the value of their estate to the wider public, and to present natural capital investment opportunities to trustees.