Whether it is out at sea or in the heart of our cities, the global quest for the recovery of nature recovery never fails to generate opportunity. This was tangible as a great array of experts gathered for the Nature Tech Expo in Leeds this summer. From Amazon Web Services to Applied Genomics, so many progressive enterprises showed how digital technologies can be the powerhouse of a better environment. Even the recording and digital processing of soundwaves have huge potential, as was brilliantly articulated by Wilder Sensing. 

As with most things relating to nature, the number of services and approaches on offer can be mesmerising. But it may now be time for public policy, the tech sector and the world of ecology to embrace this complexity and to cultivate nature tech as integral to the green economy. The event in Leeds in June highlighted the delicate balance between incentivising commercially-viable technologies that can be deployed at scale, as well as ensuring that insight into nature recovery needs to be accessible to the citizens and communities that care so much about it. Various initiatives on display at Nature Tech are building that bridge – including iNaturalist, Space4Nature and the urban nature lab of the Natural History Museum. 

We urgently need nature tech solutions that are practical and work for hard-pressed businesses, public bodies and non-profits. Envance, the progressive environment and sustainability consultancy that served as Lead Sponsor for the event illuminated the participants of Nature Tech on this front. As they pointed out, technology can be a means by which those who don’t worry about nature can come to understand why it matters and how they can do something about it. 

Over the last ten years, digital technologies have been powering efficiency and better outcomes in the health sector and education sector. Farming and the leisure industry have embraced tech too. To this end, it is somewhat surprising that the websites of some of the most loved household-name environmental charities have surprisingly little to say on the matter of digital technology. It is certainly time to switch on to nature tech, connecting with the solutions already on offer.  

Afterall, nature is close to nearly everyone’s hearts and tech is in nearly everyone’s pockets.

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