Environmental success: Cadent site achieves The Wildlife Trusts’ biodiversity accreditation

• Tatling End, in Buckinghamshire, gains The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark – a first for any of the UK gas distribution networks.
• The gas pressure management site, which is close to the M25, becomes the 48th venue in the UK to have achieved the accreditation to date.
• Cadent says this achievement will be ‘the first of many’, with several other sites already working towards it.
• This external assessment helps Cadent deliver on a commitment to keep people warm in their homes, while protecting the planet.

A site which performs an essential role in ensuring gas safely reaches homes in Buckinghamshire has secured a sector-first biodiversity accreditation.

Not far from the M25 London Orbital Motorway, Tatling End site has become an environmental trailblazer for gas distribution network Cadent.

Cadent has achieved The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark for excellence in nature-friendly land management at this site, which is near Gerrards Cross.

This is a first for any UK gas distribution network and Cadent has already put forward more sites for assessment by The Wildlife Trusts.

It has committed to ensure its sites and activities operate in harmony with local ecosystems.

The Wildlife Trust created the Biodiversity Benchmark to encourage organisations to manage their land for wildlife and it is the first scheme to recognise continual biodiversity improvement of land.

With Tatling End’s accreditation, there are now 48 Biodiversity Benchmark sites in the UK, including Center Parcs, the Met Office HQ in Devon, Nationwide Building Society’s HQ in Swindon and several business parks.

“We are incredibly proud to have achieved this biodiversity benchmark – it is a first, but it will be the first of many for us,” said Dave Garner, Cadent’s Director of Safety, Health and Environment.

“The purpose behind what we do here at Cadent is to keep people warm in their homes, while protecting the planet. This type of positive external assessment is important to help us deliver on that, in a transparent and open way.

We have thousands of similar sites – large and small – across our large UK footprint. Some are within built-up city centres, and others in the heart of the countryside. This naturally presents diverse biodiversity challenges, as well as opportunities, and we want to assess and act on these with pace.

The Tatling End site performs an important role in managing the pressure of gas as the molecules make their way through pressure ‘tiers’ and onwards to homes and businesses in the local area. It’s also a site where gas is heated before it goes into the underground pipeline network, to stop it freezing.

After onsite visits, The Wildlife Trusts’ assessor noted the positive steps Cadent had already taken on site and its future plans – which includes planting more trees and hedgerows, building a wetland area, and other enhancements to secure a biodiversity net gain. The assessor will return to site to check on progress.

Cadent has already established links with local biodiversity groups, as well as beekeepers, bat and bird groups, in order to generate the best conditions possible for a range of wildlife species to be able to call this site home, now and in the future.

Cadent is the UK’s biggest gas distribution network, operating a network of more than 80,000 miles of underground pipelines and thousands of above ground sites which distribute gas safely to more than 11 million customers. The gas it transports helps to heat properties – such as homes, hospitals, schools, offices and businesses – as well as to power industrial processes and support electricity generation.