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Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions

‘Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions’ (MNbS) is a programme funded by the Ofwat Innovation Fund. We’re bringing together 22 multi-disciplinary partners, enabling implementation of nature-based solutions as common practice to deliver greater value for society and the environment.

What’s the challenge?

Nature-based solutions (NbS) have the potential to provide multiple socio-economic and environmental benefits by tackling flooding, drought and water quality issues at landscape scale. However, there are systemic barriers currently preventing wider adoption and the benefits of NBS from being fully maximised, such as: fragmented/siloed investment, lack of standardisation and regulatory restrictions. This transformational programme of work brings together multi-sectorial expertise and leadership to collaboratively create and test new solutions to remove these barriers through real life case studies and facilitate and enable transition of NbS into business-as-usual to deliver greater value for customers, society, environment.

Working in collaboration

Collaboration will underpin the success of MNbS; we need to work together with a common vision to understand challenges, develop solutions, implement projects and sustain them into the future. The dedicated collaboration workstream aims to address the current lack of a strategic direction for the water and environment sector in relation to NbS, and to enable a national coordinated approach to NbS decision making and partnership working. We are forming and sustaining collaborative partnerships, fostering a cultural shift in support of NbS, and engaging stakeholders through communication and dissemination. Collaborative implementation of NBS creates more value for money, increases resilience of the water environment, reduces costs and inefficiencies and improves ways of working. 

MNbS is currently in Phase 1 of a five-year programme and we’ve already been working together to pool our collective knowledge and findings, influencing and making recommendations on how to enable greater adoption of nature-based solutions. We’ve produced a scoping report which reviews the current state of play to learn from and build upon existing evidence and reflects on blockers and success factors for collaboration  in the delivery of NbS. The programme is also exploring potential roles and functions of a regional convenor as partners have identified that governance and alignment of objectives at regional scales is holding back adoption on NbS at scale.

MNbS is an agile programme, allowing space for innovation when opportunity arises. An example of which is the collaborative review of the opportunities for nature-based solutions in PR24’s draft determination and the subsequent recommendations for how NbS could be upscaled at Final Determination. We note the value of NbS in AMP8 increased from £2.2bn at DD to £3.3bn at FD.

An innovative approach to valuing NbS

MNbS is developing a Common Value Framework (CVF) which is a tool to assess the broad range of benefits provided by NbS. The CVF supports decision making, enabling water companies and regulators to assess value in a consistent way and allowing greater trust and transparency.  By working together to develop a way to fairly assess which options give most benefit for the funding available, we can take evidence-led decisions around what’s best for water resilience, customers and the environment.  

Figure 1: Comparison of the benefits of a traditional storm water storage tank (option 1) vs. a nature-based solution using the CVF (option 2).
  Volume metrics
Option 1
Option 2
 Service measures
Private cost
Water resource
Water Quality
Water regulation
GHG
Air Quality
Recreation
Biodiversity
Trust
Quality of place
Health and wellbeing
✓ ✓ Storm Overflows spills reduction X   X           X X  
✓ ✓ River water quality     X       X X X X X
✓ ✓ Reduced surface water flooding X     X X       X X X
  ✓ Groundwater recharge   X             X    
  ✓ Air quality improvement           X   X X   X
  ✓ Habitat improvement         X     X X X  
  ✓ Recreation                 X   X

The Common Value Framework and associated guidance is being developed throughout 2025 with the first draft for comments available in May 2025, and final release in November 2025. We will be engaging a range of stakeholders to try and test the CFV with the aim of partners and policymakers accepting and adopting the tool as a consistent way to fairly assess the added value of NBS, enabling project developers, decision-makers, regulators and investors to benchmark opportunities in a like-for-like manner, increasing confidence and uptake.

By supporting landscape-scale implementation of NBS through improved policy, regulation, standardisation and aligned investment we’re enabling the water industry and others to collaboratively address the challenges of climate change, thereby building resilience and adaptation against flooding, drought, water quality deterioration and habitat loss.  

With thanks to the partners of Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions:

Logos for: United Utilities, The Rivers Trust, Jacobs, Mott Macdonald. ARUP, north star transition, RSK, nlwater, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Northumbrian water, southern water, seswater, Anglian water, South-west water, The Nature Conservancy, Severn trent water, Affinity water, wrse, wwt, westcounty rivers trust, south east rivers trust, Ribble rivers.