Pioneering environmental gain

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We willincrease natural capital every year with every decision made

One of the three pillars of WONDER is to pioneer environmental gain, increasing natural capital every year, with every decision made.

When we talk about natural capital we are referring to:

Soil
Air
Water
Biodiversity (plants and animals)
Landscape value

In order to be able to achieve our goal of ‘increasing natural capital every year with every decision made,’ we need a way to measure natural capital, and created our WONDER wheel.

Our surveys

Rather than an estate wide survey we undertake surveys on specific projects or sites.

We begin with a baseline survey before any development or land use change.

That score and survey report are then used to develop plans and influence decision making to ensure that when the site is resurveyed in three or five years’ time, the score will be higher – we will have increased our natural capital.

The graphic here shows the predicted WONDER wheel for our project, Monica’s Meadow, as detailed below.

The surveying period starts in February, with soil, and ends in September when we complete bat surveys.

May, June and July the main surveying period capturing the other elements.

Utilising accredited methodologies such as the VESS test (visual evaluation of soil structure), each element is allocated a score out of 5 with 20 elements giving a total score out of 100.

This creates our WONDER wheel.

An example project: Monica’s Meadow

Jewellery brand Monica Vinader – one of Holkham’s tenants – has sponsored the creation of a wildflower meadow on a former seven hectare arable field next to the Holkham National Nature Reserve.

We undertook a baseline WONDER wheel in 2022, and the score was 26/100. The image here shows the ‘before’: a crop of beans on what is now ‘Monica’s Meadow’, in summer 2022.

Using this information, we developed a plan to create a wildflower meadow within the main field, retaining existing field margins, create a pond and coppicing the existing hedgerow.

Our prediction for the site is that by 2027 when it is resurveyed it will reach a score of 61/100.

We will therefore have increased our natural capital by 35 points, moving it from an E rating to a B.