UK/Ireland: Mannok has launched a comprehensive biodiversity report, the Natural Assets Action Plan, in partnership with the conservationist group Ulster Wildlife. The report examines the entirety of the company’s landholdings, which span 800ha on both sides of the EU/UK border. Habitats include grasslands, wetlands, woodlands, ponds and quarries. The report will provide a roadmap for the conservation, restoration and enhancement of each area of land to help Mannok to meet its sustainability targets. Key aims include increasing biodiversity awareness among Mannok staff, customers and local communities, improving biodiversity monitoring, maximising carbon absorption in soil and vegetation, rewilding the natural landscape and ensuring resilience to predicted climate change effects.

Chief executive officer Liam McCaffrey said “This report informs our understanding of the value of natural assets to the business and wider community and will help guide our long-term planning and strategic investment decisions in a way which aims to maintain and enhance those assets. Already it has started to change our perspectives of what was previously considered wasteland. Now, we can see opportunities for careful and considered restoration into valuable natural assets for the future. Additionally, the work involved in creating the plan has allowed us to focus on the whole area of carbon mitigation in ways which we would not have considered before. The way in which we are looking at carbon reduction through careful management of our land is a relatively novel concept in industry, but we now recognise it as a critical tool in the fight against climate change.”

He added “The report is full of very valuable recommendations on what we can practically do over the next three - five years and beyond to continue enhancing and restoring our land assets, and we are very much committed to delivering on this. We will commit resources, time, people and finances to develop the recommendations.”