---
title: why a business funds nature in its own region
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/why-a-business-funds-nature-in-its-own-region
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/why-a-business-funds-nature-in-its-own-region.md
subtitle: "a place it can name, a visit where the landowner allows, a record it can report. what a buyer gets, what it does not, and what the region has to show it"
category: nature-finance
---

# why a business funds nature in its own region

*a place it can name, a visit where the landowner allows, a record it can report. what a buyer gets, what it does not, and what the region has to show it*

The river that runs past the depot is the one that floods the yard. The heath on the ridge is where half the office walks at lunch. The street trees outside the shop are why the pavement is bearable in August. None of them sends an invoice, and many of them do work the business would otherwise pay for.

That work goes on whether or not anyone lists it. A nature market is the place where a business that depends on it can find it and pay for it: a list of named projects, a way to pay, and a record of who paid for what. A region can run one on [*ensurance*](https://ensurance.app/?from=guide), plumbing it borrows instead of building its own. Neither the market nor the money is the worth of the river.

To **invest in local nature projects**, for most businesses, means to fund named work (a pond dug, a heath grazed, a river reach given room to flood) inside the region where it operates, through a market that records who paid for what. It is funding, not an investment for a return. This post is for the business sustainability lead deciding whether to buy, and for the region deciding what to show that buyer.

:::johnson
**a business funds what it can name, see, and report.** Give it a place, a visit and a record, and the ask gets easier.

[see how a business funds the places it depends on →](/solutions/corporations?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market)
:::

## why a business funds nature in its own region

Three reasons are practical before they are moral.

**It can name the place.** A business depends on particular places: the catchment above its intake, the floodplain beside its site, the green space its staff use. Funding work there is funding its own conditions, not a cause somewhere else.

**It can see it.** Where the landowner allows, staff can plant, survey or walk it, and customers can visit. A project a mile away is one people can check with their own eyes.

**It can report it.** A dated record that a named business funded named work at a named place is a record it can put in a sustainability report. What that record counts for is up to the framework, not the market.

The West Midlands Combined Authority estimates its nature recovery strategy needs about £150m, public and private, and launched its Nature Investment Hub in July 2026 with an initial pipeline of about £2m. The hub says its business offer includes recognition in an annual regional impact report. In the North East, the combined authority's marketplace lets a buyer buy carbon credits or fund projects. Regions are building places for businesses to fund named projects, and Defra says its Projects for Nature pilot drew more than £700,000.

## what a business gets, and what it does not

| it gets | it does not get |
|---|---|
| A named place and named work it funded | A carbon credit or an offset |
| A dated record of what it paid, where | A biodiversity net gain unit |
| A named place and, where the landowner allows, a visit | A guaranteed disclosure outcome under TNFD (the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures), CSRD (the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) or SBTN (the Science Based Targets Network) |
| A link to the region's own nature recovery strategy | An investment product, or a promise of return |

The biodiversity net gain row matters most for developers. Since 12 February 2024, major development in England must deliver a 10% biodiversity net gain, and small sites since 2 April 2024, with gains secured for at least 30 years and statutory credits as the last resort. That duty has its own rules and its own register, covered in [demand by statute](/guide/demand-by-statute?from=guide). Funding a local project can sit beside it. It cannot meet it.

On disclosure, the honest promise is narrow: a record the business can report. Whether a framework treats that record as evidence, a target or nothing at all is for the framework's rules and the business's advisers. [Who writes the nature finance check](/guide/who-writes-the-nature-finance-check?from=guide) explains why a disclosure is not the payment.

## does and should, by role

Many buyers in a region pay, in some form, when local places stop doing their work. The table shows the usual pattern by role, and where a first local payment would go.

| role | what it may do now | what it should fund in its own region | the record it can report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employer with a site on a river | Often pays to clean up and insure after floods | Work on the reach and floodplain upstream of the site | Named river work funded, by year |
| Water or energy utility | Often treats water and repairs assets after storms | The peat, wood or wetland above its intake | Named catchment work funded |
| Developer | Buys biodiversity net gain units to meet its statutory duty | A named project on a separate record from the statutory duty | Named work funded, recorded apart from its statutory duty |
| Bank or lender | May report nature-related risk across its loan book | Projects in the region where its borrowers are | Named regional projects funded |
| University or hospital | Often manages its own grounds | A pond, heath or street trees its students, staff or patients can reach | A place on its doorstep funded |
| Retailer or hotel | May pay to cool its premises in a heatwave | Street trees and green space on its own high street | Named street work funded |

"Should" is not a duty. It is where a payment made after the damage could start earlier, at the place.

## what the region has to show the buyer

A buyer who is ready to fund still walks away from a vague ask. Before a business signs, a region should be able to show six things.

1. **The place and the work.** Which pond, which reach, which heath, and what will be done.
2. **The cost and who does it.** A number, and the named group, farmer or trust doing the work.
3. **How it fits the strategy.** England's 48 Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas now cover the whole country. The West Midlands hub reportedly asks that projects align with its regional strategy, which gives a buyer a reason the project was chosen.
4. **How the money reaches the project.** An account in the project's name, not a general pot.
5. **One record per project.** So the same work is not sold twice, once as a credit and once as funding.
6. **What comes back, and when.** Evidence of the work, and the date the buyer will see it.

[Name the line for the buyer, not the town](/guide/name-the-line-for-the-buyer-not-the-town?from=guide) covers where a buyer sits.

## how a business funds a project on ensurance

The pipes are simple and live today. Each project in a region's group has an **agent**, an account in the project's own name. A business funds the project through a **certificate** on that project's page: a record that a named buyer funded named work at a named place. Certificates are suggested and created after review, so a project does not list itself unchecked. Proceeds route to the project's account on a split, with the steward (the person or group looking after the place) named. Accounts and certificates sit on a public record, so anyone can check what a certificate says.

The unit is plain: one certificate on one named project, a dated record in the buyer's books. A card or invoice checkout for a business buyer is not live. Until then, a business and the region agree the payment route at contact, and the certificate records it afterwards.

A region's group on ensurance is linked to the rest of the protocol, so no region goes alone: an account that funds projects in more than one region can hold a certificate from each, and their projects show on the same [markets page](/markets?from=guide). The links are live; the depth between markets is still early.

## what this means for each reader

**The business.** Start with one place you can name near one site, one project, and one record. Browse [specific ensurance](/specific?from=guide) to see what a certificate records.

**The region.** Bring the six items above to the first meeting. A buyer will fund a place it can see before it funds a pipeline it cannot.

**The project.** Write the ask in the buyer's terms: the place, the work, the cost, and what they will be able to say about it afterwards.

## frequently asked questions

### how can a business invest in local nature projects?

Find the regional nature market or partnership where you operate, pick a named project near a site you depend on, and fund it with a clear record of what was paid, where. On ensurance that record is a certificate on the project's page.

### can a business count local nature funding as an offset?

No. A certificate is not a carbon credit, an offset or a biodiversity net gain unit, and it cannot meet a statutory duty or support an offsetting claim. It records funding for named work at a named place.

### will funding local nature meet our TNFD or CSRD reporting?

It gives you a record you can report. What that record counts for under TNFD, CSRD, SBTN or any other framework is set by that framework and your advisers, not by the market.

### is this an investment with a financial return?

No. A certificate is not an investment product. There is no financial return. What a business gets is a record of the work it funded.

## next steps

Businesses can start from [the corporations page](/solutions/corporations?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market). Councils and combined authorities preparing a buyer pitch can start from [the governments page](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market). If you know the place you want to fund, [tell us the place and the site](/contact?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market).

## sources

- [West Midlands Nature Investment Hub, WMCA](https://wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/environment-energy/natural-environment/west-midlands-nature-investment-hub/) and [WMCA on the £150m plan](https://wmca.org.uk/news/mayor-calls-on-businesses-to-back-150million-nature-recovery-plan/): launch, initial pipeline and the strategy estimate
- [Defra, Rooted in place](https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/02/rooted-in-place-how-the-west-midlands-nature-investment-hub-is-connecting-investment-with-nature/): the hub's launch and how it works
- [West Midlands Nature Hub](https://naturehub.wmca.org.uk/): the business offer and project criteria
- [North East Carbon and Nature Marketplace launch, North East Combined Authority](https://northeast-ca.gov.uk/news/environment-coastal-and-rural/north-east-mayor-launches-uk-s-first-combined-authority-led-carbon-and-nature-marketplace): credits and project funding
- [Projects for Nature, Defra](https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/24/projects-for-nature-celebrates-a-major-step-towards-mobilising-private-finance-into-nature/): the national pilot
- [Local nature recovery strategies, GOV.UK](https://gov.uk/government/publications/local-nature-recovery-strategies): 48 areas under the Environment Act 2021
- [Understanding biodiversity net gain, GOV.UK](https://gov.uk/guidance/understanding-biodiversity-net-gain) and [statutory biodiversity credits, GOV.UK](https://gov.uk/guidance/statutory-biodiversity-credits): the statutory regime and its dates

## the series

1. [how to launch a nature market for your city or region](/guide/how-to-launch-a-nature-market-for-your-city?from=guide)
2. [what is inside a nature marketplace](/guide/what-is-inside-a-nature-marketplace?from=guide)
3. [what a local carbon market is, and what it leaves out](/guide/what-a-local-carbon-market-leaves-out?from=guide)
4. **why a business funds nature in its own region** (you are here)
5. [you do not have to build the marketplace](/guide/you-do-not-have-to-build-the-marketplace?from=guide)
6. [launch your region's nature market on ensurance](/guide/launch-your-regions-nature-market-on-ensurance?from=guide)
7. [already run a nature market? add ensurance beside it](/guide/already-run-a-nature-market-add-ensurance-beside-it?from=guide)