Highlights
- Sustainable business with focus on long term benefits to the environment.
- Helping combat the climate emergency by ensuring their business is carbon negative and biodiversity positive, also assisting other businesses across different sectors to adopt a similar approach.
- Establishing a 46-hectare nature reserve and developing a native woodland (registered with the Woodland Carbon Code).
MacArthur Green is an environmental consultancy which specialises in ornithology, ecology, hydrology and peat services, primarily supporting renewable energy projects and grid networks. The Limited Company, based in Glasgow, works with clients to deliver projects beneficial to the environment.
MacArthur Green works for renewable developers throughout the UK with projects both onshore and offshore. They also support statutory bodies such as The Crown Estate, the Scottish Government, NatureScot, Natural England and the UK Government.
Their project started in 2017 when they purchased an area of land in Argyll to establish a nature reserve and develop a native woodland. Scottish Forestry grant funding was confirmed in early 2019 and they planted their woodland shortly after, in April 2019. A Reserve Management Plan has been developed to ensure that the nature reserve is managed in a way which promotes and sustains biodiversity.
Achievements so far include: planting 18 hectares of native woodland (29,700 trees) on site; managing 8 hectares of existing oak woodland; managing 6 hectares of peatland habitat; and the installation of bird and mammal boxes. A recruitment campaign was recently completed to source local part-time estate workers to help deliver the conservation work on their reserve. Some work, such as developing a footpath for the reserve has been hampered by COVID-19; this will now be progressed in 2021, joining the local communities of Lochgair and East Kames.
As an environmental consultancy, they were keen to adopt a nature-based solution to helping combat the climate crisis, and so planting trees seemed like the natural choice! They have registered their woodland with the Woodland Carbon Code and it is estimated that the trees will remove 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 100 years.
Their goal was to transition MacArthur Green to a Carbon Negative and Biodiversity Positive Business Model so that they help to combat the climate emergency and benefit nature through the way they operate. They want to use their experience to help other businesses across different economic sectors to adopt a similar approach.
Their carbon footprint was independently assessed and they now have a clear understanding of their carbon emissions. They developed a Carbon Management Plan (2019-2020) to ensure that they are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible. Recognising that it will take years for their woodland to accumulate carbon credits, they are offsetting twice their footprint to work towards paying off their company lifetime carbon footprint. They have developed an Advice Note and a short film to help other businesses adopt a similar approach (shared publically on their website).