The Environmental Industries Commission(EIC), part of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering  (ACE Group), has today launched Delivering Nature Infrastructure: A Three-Point Plan - a practical, industry-backed roadmap for ensuring that nature-based solutions are treated with the same seriousness, and the same policy weight, as the roads, railways and flood defences we already depend on.

The three points are simple: recognise nature as infrastructure, join up government to deliver it and evidence its economic value.

Milda Manomaityte, CEO of ACE Group, said: “The engineering and infrastructure sector has always understood that the best solutions work with nature, not against it. What’s needed now is the policy frameworks, investment signals and government coordination that reflect nature's true value.

“Nature already does an enormous amount of work for communities across the UK: absorbing flood water; cooling urban areas, protecting coastlines and locking in carbon. Yet the systems to measure, coordinate, and value nature's contribution remain underdeveloped. Our three point plan sets out to change that.”

Philippa Spence, Managing Director, Environment and Health at Ramboll, said: “The case for nature-based infrastructure has never been stronger, economically, environmentally and socially. What's been missing is the framework to embed it properly into planning and decision-making across government. Working with ACE and EIC on this plan, I'm confident we now have the start of something practical and deliverable.”

Nature-based solutions already deliver climate resilience, biodiversity gain, carbon sequestration and improved public health, frequently at lower whole-life cost than engineered alternatives. Yet they remain outside mainstream infrastructure planning, without the valuation frameworks, cross-government coordination, or delivery structures that engineered assets use.

With the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority now operational the moment is right to make the case clearly: nature is not a green add-on, it is one of our most cost-effective delivery mechanisms, and policy must reflect that.

Click here to read more about the three-point plan.

Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) is the business association for the UK’s professional consultancies and engineering companies operating in the social and economic infrastructure sectors. As the leading voice for the sector, we foster collaboration to propel the industry to fulfil its ambitions.

We champion infrastructure and the built environment - helping our sector to build a safe, prosperous and sustainable future.

Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) champions new environmental markets to Government and other stakeholders and is the leading association representing the environmental technologies and services sector.

We represent around 400 member companies, large and small, working in the environmental technologies and services sector.

EIC is part of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering Group (ACE). ACE is the business association for the UK’s professional consultancy and engineering companies operating in the social and economic infrastructure sectors.

Together, our members provide insight and guidance on infrastructure and environmental programmes of all scales and stages of development. Leveraging insight from global best practice, they bring innovation, solutions and cost effectiveness.

Our sector is highly skilled, productive, and forward-looking - employing over 470,000 people and contributing more than £39bn to the UK economy. It competes on a global stage, exporting over £11.1bn, providing solutions to the world’s pressing issues and holds the key to a brighter future.

About Ramboll

Ramboll is a global engineering, architecture and consultancy company with more than 18,000 experts that create sustainable solutions for governments and companies all over the world.

We combine insights with the power to drive positive change to our clients, in the form of ideas that can be realised and implemented.

We call it: Bright ideas. Sustainable change.