In her latest blog, UKBBF Finance Director Emily Johns reflects on her takeaways from Edinburgh – from ensuring Scotland’s distinct policy framework isn’t an afterthought, to navigating shared language across sectors.
She also explores why moving from corporate ‘disclosure to delivery’ needs cross-pollination across industries, and why hope is an essential leadership skill for everyone working toward a nature-positive future.
Since making Scotland my home, one of the things I enjoy the most is making sure that Scotland is on the map when conversations are had about nature in the UK.
All too often I attend conferences where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are afterthoughts in an English-centric agenda – whether it’s having to regularly remind people that BNG is only applicable to England, that agriculture and forestry are devolved powers, or that what is a rare habitat in England is problematically common in Scotland.
So, its been a real treat to be involved in a conference held in Scotland, in partnership with Scottish organisations, showcasing some of the best case studies and people working in nature that we have to offer.
I have come away from the day with my usual notebook full of incomprehensible scrawls and emails to myself with reminders of great ideas I had in the moment. Realistically I know that very few of these scrawls and ideas will be translated into meaningful action by the time I am back at my desk and head into the day job – but this time I have made the promise to myself to take away actions on four themes that I felt resonated throughout the day.
Disclosure to Delivery
Day to day at SSENT we have been talking about the move from 2025 to 2026 as the move from thinking to doing, and in Scotland we are moving ever closer to legally binding nature restoration targets, so it was great to hear the exact sentiment echoed by Mark Johnston as “moving from Disclosure to Delivery”.
The day was full of discussion on tangible actions we can all take, and clear (Scottish!) case studies of how these can work in practice. This has renewed my focus on what the next thing I can do to remove barriers to delivery is, whether that is through innovative funding models for nature restoration, new partnerships, or advocating for system change.
Shared Language
It was abundantly clear that everyone in the room is in full agreement that we need to do less harm to nature, and do more work to restore it. What was also clear is that we can’t all agree on what words we use to describe that. Whether it is talking about supply chains or value chains; or biodiversity enhancement vs biodiversity net gain.
We need to tell the stories that help us to create a common language and translate between the worlds we need to each navigate in order to do better by nature. I am going to continue to work to tell the stories of how we have succeeded and failed and where the language has tripped us up and what we have learned from that at every opportunity I can.
Collaboration
We cannot do any of this without working together – both with those who agree with us and those who disagree, ensuring that there is the space to challenge and learn from each other. I used the horribly cheesy metaphor of “cross pollination” during the working dialogue session on nature in the supply chain, but I stand by it.
We need to share ideas, people, resources, and learnings and encourage the new things we learn from this. As UKBBF we have a huge opportunity to bring everyone together and I am going to focus in on supporting the team to deliver a successful Biodiversity Summit in November that gives businesses the space to collaborate.
“Hope is a leadership skill” – Gemma Harper
The room was filled with people full of hope and optimism, and as a firmly yellow, glass-half-full person it was exciting and refreshing to hear that there is a clear place for and skill in that.
I often find myself questioning whether I should be so hopeful about what we can achieve for nature in Scotland, but after today I will be doubling down on my hopefulness for the future. Because it is exciting, and there is so much opportunity for businesses to make a real change.
Emily is finance director at the UKBBF, and Nature Strategy Manager at SSEN Transmission.