Engaging businesses in transactions that deliver environmental improvement
This guidance, produced in collaboration with the Green Finance Institute, is designed to help land and water managers, nature-based enterprises, and their advisors engage businesses as buyers of environmental outcomes. Drawing on lessons from the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund and other UK nature market initiatives, this guidance makes the case for moving beyond one-off donations and grants towards contractual, outcome-based transactions such as carbon credits or flood risk reduction services, which can unlock larger and more sustainable funding streams from the private sector.
The guidance sets out a practical five-step process for engaging businesses: researching the business and its priorities; understanding the influences shaping its decisions; formulating a clear and credible service offer; identifying points of alignment between business needs and environmental outcomes; and beginning meaningful conversations through the right channels and contacts. Each step is grounded in the recognition that businesses are increasingly motivated to act on climate and nature-related risks, driven by investor expectations, regulatory pressure, and sustainability commitments.
Throughout, the guidance emphasises that securing transactions with businesses is a long-term endeavour requiring patience, preparation, and genuine relationship-building. It offers practical advice on tailoring approaches to different business cultures and job functions, and encourages collaboration with wider networks and schemes where appropriate.
View guidance in separate page
Real world examples
To bring this guidance to life, below are a few real-world examples of projects that are already engaging businesses. We spoke directly with each project to hear about their experiences, and the information below reflects their own responses. Each one illustrates a unique approach to building relationships and securing outcome-based transactions, showing what is possible when land and water managers put these principles into practice.
The Aire Resilience Company (ARC) is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company established to improve the resilience of the Aire Valley, Leeds and surrounding areas in the face of climate change. It engages businesses directly as funding partners through a consortium model, with contributions from organisations including Yorkshire Water as lead business partner, alongside a growing range of businesses from across the region. Funds provided by the consortium enable ARC to maintain and expand natural flood management measures in the upper Aire catchment, with business partners receiving impact reports, site visits, volunteering opportunities, stakeholder networking opportunities, and board representation in return for their support.
What business sectors have you found to be most interested in what your project offers?
ARC is still early in building its consortium of businesses. But what we can say so far is that the response has been varied and it is not possible to say which business sector(s) have been most interested in ARC. As ARC matures this will become clearer but as of now it is hard to identify which sectors are the early adopters. That said, Yorkshire Water has engaged strongly with ARC as there is a tangible link between ARC’s objectives and their business needs.
How did you start the relationships with prospective business buyers of the service provided by ARC?
The Chamber of Commerce was extremely helpful in making links with the business community. Leeds City Council Economic Development Team were invaluable in opening doors for us as well as providing market intelligence. We also attended events such as the Yorkshire Sustainability Week to put our board out. We called on personal relationships and knowledge of actors in the Leeds business community to advocate for us. We have networked, made presentations, attended events and hosted our own events to get the ARC proposition out there. We are now moving to a more structured targeted approach to recruiting businesses. LinkedIn has been a powerful tool in reaching people and keeping the Leeds community informed of what ARC is doing/progressing.
What types of job roles in businesses have you engaged with? Which types of people in businesses have been most keen to explore the services that your project offers?
We have learnt that it is best to speak to senior people within a business. Our proposition is the reduction in flood and climate risk – therefore it is best to speak to a senior person responsible for risk management. ARC is about climate risk management more than it is about the environment.
What have you learned from your work to serve businesses in the landscape(s) in which you work?
When pitching to a business make sure it is to a senior person with sufficient leverage within the organisation – and if possible, make it the business risk manager. It is necessary to cultivate a relationship with someone and get them to advocate for you within the business. It takes longer than you think but you have to be persistent. Make sure your language is understandable to the businesses. We kept the proposition simple for businesses – you do not have to flood to be affected by flooding. Capitalise on any existing relationships that you have. What businesses say on their websites with regard to ESG can often bedifferent to what they will actually commit to. However, use it as a starting point when opening a discussion. Also research their climate risks and vulnerabilities, for example are they in a flood zone, are they reliant on a resilient water supply, would flooded roads disrupt their operations, have they flooded in the past, etc.
Learn more about ARC here.
The Wendling Beck project in Norfolk is a great example of how a nature recovery project can build effective business relationships to fund environmental outcomes at scale. As a 2,000-acre habitat bank offering biodiversity net gain and nutrient neutrality credits, the project works directly with businesses such as housebuilders and water companies to deliver measurable environmental improvements, with partners including Anglian Water. With over 3,000 biodiversity units and 5,000 metres of river restoration under way, it demonstrates how outcome-based transactions with businesses can drive nature recovery far beyond what grants alone could achieve.
What business sectors have you found to be most interested in what your project offers?
Principally developers, infrastructure providers, utilities and corporates. But we are also building some strong partnerships with institutional finance such as banks, asset managers and pension funds.
How did you start the relationships with prospective business buyers?
We always work to the rule of seven; the principle that you need seven interactions to build trust. We try and build relationships over time through networking, reaching out via email or social media and always trying to deliver unrivalled value through the services we offer and the way we do business.
What types of job roles have you engaged with, and which have been most keen to explore your services?
We have engaged with a very broad range of roles and positions. This has varied from ministers and senior government officials, CEO and board level directors, procurement managers, planners, SME and sole traders. Everyone we have engaged with has been genuinely interested and inspired by the scale and depth of the project. We have a very broad range of customers from multinationals to one-man-bands. Everyone is important to us regardless of scale or position.
What is the key lesson you’ve learned from your work serving businesses in your landscape?
We always try to be the most competitive on price whilst offering a premium product. High quality and never knowingly undersold. We always try to work with simplicity, transparency and honesty. We are not interested in short-term commercial gain. We are building an in-perpetuity project and we want to build long-term, enduring relationships with our customers. Our most important lesson is relationships are the foundation of success.
Learn more about the Wendling Beck project here.