Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs) are a powerful tool for corporate buyers looking to meet their Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives while contributing to nature’s recovery.
South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA), in partnership with Earthly, launched Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs) in 2024.
Why Buy Voluntary Biodiversity Credits?
Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs) offer businesses a secure and transparent way to invest in nature, funding biodiversity restoration and protection.
Each VBC represents:
- A 3x3m² parcel of land, identified with a What3Words location
- A site within the South Downs National Park
- Registration on a national database, ensuring credibility and preventing greenwashing
- Legal security through an S106 agreement with the landowner
- Alignment with legislation, including the Environment Act 2021
- Additionality, ensuring biodiversity gains wouldn’t happen without this funding
- Measurement using the DEFRA metric, a government-backed biodiversity assessment tool
This structured approach makes VBCs a robust option for businesses looking to enhance their environmental impact.
By purchasing these credits, companies can help accelerate nature recovery efforts, support national environmental targets, and create positive social and environmental outcomes.
Get in touch to find out more.
Why Choose VBCs for Your ESG Goals?
Voluntary Biodiversity Credits are perfect for businesses seeking to:
- Enhance ESG and TNFD reporting: VBCs offer a direct way to support biodiversity, making them an excellent tool for companies committed to environmental and social governance.
- Meet national environmental targets: By investing in VBCs, you can contribute to the UK’s ambitious biodiversity recovery goals and accelerate the achievement of sustainable development targets.
- Drive real-world impact: Your investment in VBCs directly funds land restoration projects, helping to transform agricultural land into natural habitats that benefit wildlife and communities.
- Support local economies: The sale of VBCs helps boost the rural economy by providing landowners and managers with new revenue streams for land use changes that support biodiversity.
- Ensure transparency and integrity: All VBCs are listed on the National Register of Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (available here: Earthly Biodiversity Ledger), ensuring no greenwashing or double-counting, with rigorous methods for credit issuance and tracking.
- Give Science-based targets.
Our Partnership with Earthly
The SDNPA and Earthly have partnered to establish a new Nature Market that makes it easy for businesses to invest in biodiversity recovery through the purchase of Voluntary Biodiversity Credits.
Our partnership is built on a commitment to environmental integrity and best practices, ensuring that every VBC purchase drives measurable, impactful results.
Key Features of our Voluntary Biodiversity Market
- Rigorous Certification: All VBCs are backed by robust methodologies and governance frameworks, including the BSI Flex 701 Framework, and CIEEM BNG good practice principles, ensuring compliance and transparency at every step.
- Real Impact for Landowners: The VBCs are linked to land use change, such as converting agricultural land into biodiversity-rich woodland, with landowners generating both Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) credits and voluntary credits from the same projects.
- Avoiding Greenwashing: Earthly and The South Downs National Park Authority both ensure that all credits are issued and tracked without duplication or double counting. This guarantees the integrity of every credit transaction.
How It Works
- Landowner Engagement: SDNPA works directly with landowners to secure land use change agreements that support biodiversity recovery.
- Certification & Registration: Earthly verifies the land’s biodiversity status, certifies the credits, and registers them on the National Register, ensuring full transparency and accountability.
- Credit Sale & Impact: Businesses purchase VBCs, directly funding habitat restoration and biodiversity projects that contribute to their environmental goals.
- Ongoing Monitoring & Reporting: SDNPA ensures continuous monitoring and compliance through the use of s106 agreements and local planning authority powers. This secures each parcel of land for 30 years.
Case Study: Iford Estate
We are proud to announce our collaboration with the Iford Estate in East Sussex, which is the first landowner in the South Downs National Park to convert arable land into new woodland habitats for both BNG and VBCs.
This is just the beginning of what we hope will be many more projects that deliver real benefits for nature, people, and businesses alike.
Get Involved
To learn more about how Voluntary Biodiversity Credits can help you achieve your ESG goals, or to purchase VBCs for your organisation, please get in touch:
Sarah Westbrook and Mark Alden
Email: ReNatureCredits@southdowns.gov.uk
We look forward to helping your business lead the way in biodiversity action and sustainability.