Cornwall Council uses Gaia Enterprise to deliver private funding​ for natural capital projects

Based on their innovative approach, Cornwall Council was chosen by the Government to be one of 4 pilot areas across the country, funded to create a new local framework to secure private finance for delivery of local priorities for nature.

This led to the formation of the Local investment in nature – Cornwall project (LINC) in 2023 and the launch of their LINC platform built on Gaia Enterprise.

Screenshot from LINC - click on the image to visit the LINC platform.

We selected Gaia as delivery partners for Cornwall’s Natural Capital Exchange because they offered the opportunity to develop a solution bespoke for Cornwall but that built upon the strong underpinnings of their existing platform, and because their mission and ethos was closely aligned to ours

Throughout the development we found the team at Gaia to be very responsive and accommodating,  developing a system that not only meets our current requirements, but has the flexibility to meet our future needs.

Gaia software is beautifully flexible and I would recommend it to any local authority or council looking to manage and market their environmental and green efforts. 

Picture of Mark Hanmore

Mark Hanmore

Environment and Climate Change Project Manager
Cornwall Council

Goals

  • To catalyse private funding in natural capital to help meet Cornwall’s target of 30% of land, rivers and seas to be well managed for nature by 2030.
  • Showcase a portfolio of high-integrity projects ready for funding.
  • Deliver a centralised catalogue for natural capital units in Cornwall.
  • Provide a learning hub to a one stop library of natural capital resources for buyers and sellers.

Background

Based on their innovative approach, Cornwall Council was chosen by Government to be one of 4 pilot areas across the country, funded to create a new local framework to secure private finance for delivery of local priorities for nature. This led to the formation of the Local investment in nature – Cornwall project (LINC) in 2023.

LINC builds on previous Natural Environment Readiness Investment Fund (NEIRF) work in Cornwall. In 2022 Cornwall Council examined the feasibility of establishing a new local mechanism to help unlock opportunities for investing in nature in Cornwall. They spoke to many stakeholders to understand their views and gauge the appetite and barriers for investors and landholders. They also spoke to national experts on how they could catalyse private funding at the county-scale. In doing so they were generously steered by a group of local stakeholders including developer representatives, farming and landowner representatives, and environmental experts.

Following the formation of the LINC project, Cornwall Council tendered for a technology partner to deliver the LINC platform. Gaia were chosen as the ideal partner for the project due to our out of the box white labelled natural capital exchange and integration with the Gaia national marketplace for BNG units.

High Integrity Nature Projects for Funding

A key challenge in the project was to ensure that Cornwall Council’s due diligence process for ensuring high integrity projects was delivered. This involved capturing significant information from the seller and then presenting this information to the approval board.

Cornwall Council used Gaia’s form builder, workflow engine and approval processes to deliver each step of the process. This ensured that the natural capital projects listed on LINC all met the highest standards whilst still providing a slick user experience.

Results

  • Delivery of user friendly platform the nature investment in Cornwall – LINC platform.
  • Created an easy way for buyers and sellers to engage with funding nature in Cornwall.
  • Built in forms and flows to ensure only high integrity projects are listed on LINC. 
  • Scalable solution that allows for the expansion to additional natural capital assets such as peatland carbon, natural flood management and wilder carbon.  

What's next?

The next steps for Cornwall Council are to use the analytics data from Gaia to continue to drive investment to their projects and expand the number of projects listed on Gaia. They will also be expanding to other natural capital assets and continue to take advantage of new features that Gaia launch.

Customer

Cornwall Council

Product

Gaia Enterprise

Use Case

– Funding for Nature Projects
– Natural Capital Marketplace (BNG units, Nutrient Neutrality, Carbon etc.)
– Learning Hub

PUBLIC SECTOR