Real Assets
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Insights
August 2026
Supporting biodiversity and nature alongside the Eden Project
Seb Beloe and Juliet Rose reflect on the achievements of our partnership with the Eden Project.
Foresight’s collaboration with the Eden Project brings together two organisations focused on supporting natural ecosystems. First established in 2022 and recently extended, our partnership has supported employee volunteering, biodiversity improvements across Foresight assets and expert knowledge-sharing. In this Q&A, Seb Beloe, Managing Director of Sustainability at Foresight, and Juliet Rose, Head of Development at the Eden Project, discuss what has been achieved so far and the priorities for the year ahead.
Q: Seb, what makes the Eden Project a valuable sustainability partner for Foresight?
Seb: Partnering with Eden allows us to work with an organisation whose values and focus areas align with our sustainability strategy. Their credible, hands-on expertise in biodiversity and nature helps us to strengthen our approach to responsible stewardship at site level across our Real Assets portfolios. Eden also provides our employees with opportunities to connect directly with nature through UK-based volunteering and other initiatives. That blend of strategic insight and real-world engagement is what makes the relationship particularly valuable.
Q: Juliet, what makes Foresight an important partner for the Eden Project?
Juliet: Foresight is a valuable partner given the key role that investment managers can play in influencing how assets can be managed over the long term. By integrating nature and biodiversity into asset management, investors such as Foresight can help protect and improve natural landscapes. Foresight brings practical knowledge from the broad range of habitats it manages assets within, and we have seen those environments evolve since the relationship began in 2022.
Q: What are the key priorities for collaboration over the next 12 months?
Seb: We have three main priorities. The first is employee engagement, including nature-focused volunteering days and opportunities for colleagues to visit the Eden Project in Cornwall. These activities help employees experience Eden’s work directly, including this year’s opportunity for some colleagues to visit the Cornwall site and attend the Eden Sessions concerts.
The second is delivery across Foresight sites, with Eden supporting site-specific biodiversity interventions. This year, we are particularly focused on drawing on Eden’s expertise in wildflower meadows, where its work through the National Wildflower Centre makes it a leading voice. The third is wider stakeholder activity, including events, thought leadership and work with other partners where Foresight and Eden can bring complementary perspectives.
Q: Juliet, how do volunteer days contribute to the partnership?
Juliet: Volunteering is a really effective way to make the relationship tangible for employees. During last year’s partnership, we were particularly pleased to initiate work with Spitalfields Crypt Trust in London, which supports people in recovery from addiction and manages a community garden that benefits from volunteer support. In total, approximately 60 Foresight employees participated in volunteering days organised by Eden, and it was encouraging to see a range of teams experience in person how practical action can support ecosystems across both rural and urban settings.
Q: What other achievements have emerged from the partnership?
Juliet: We have also delivered trials with two Foresight Private Equity portfolio companies, Bloemteknik and Zayndu. Bloemteknik explored how customisable lighting could help optimise crop yields, while Zayndu tested its proprietary technology to enhance seed performance, particularly in relation to the longevity of Eden’s Wildflower Seed Bank. Both trials have produced interesting outputs, and we are exploring how to build on them through further collaboration. They are strong examples of how innovative UK SMEs can develop technologies with potential applications for strengthening the resilience of natural ecosystems.
Q: What else is Foresight doing across biodiversity and nature?
Seb: Across Real Assets, we are focused on improving biodiversity and the natural environment across our sites. Around 8,100 hectares of our portfolio are currently covered by biodiversity improvement plans, and we aim to increase that over the next 12 months. A particular focus will be on sites where we are exploring how biodiversity improvements can align with and support the UK’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) framework.
We have also begun developing Nature Recovery Blueprints for the Nordics, Mediterranean, and Australia, building on the original Nature Recovery Blueprint (“NRB”) launched with Eden in 2024. These regional Blueprints will provide more tailored guidance, helping us consider what nature recovery means in different geographies and asset contexts.
The Nordic and Mediterranean NRBs are being developed through pilot site-level Nature Recovery Plans in Sweden and Spain, where Foresight is engaging with region-specialist ecologists, operations and maintenance teams, land managers, landowners and local communities to deliver biodiversity enhancements that build the foundation for the regional NRBs. In Australia, we are currently working closely with a third-party consultant to baseline the Australian Renewables Income Fund (ARIF) portfolio to better understand its exposure to nature-related risks and opportunities.
Q: What role do partnerships like this play in supporting the sustainable economy?
Juliet: From a commercial perspective, partners are vital to our financial model and our ability to deliver Eden’s strategy. But the value goes beyond that. Working with a varied group of organisations helps us understand different perspectives and strengthens our role as a convener. This is central to our role and reputation as an organisation committed to supporting more constructive relationships between businesses, communities and nature.
Seb: For Foresight, this relationship shows that responsible asset-level stewardship is strengthened by working with partners who bring specialist expertise and practical experience. Good stewardship extends beyond how we manage investments and operations; it also encompasses how we engage other stakeholders such as suppliers, our clients and policymakers who are all needed to support broader progress. That combination of specialist expertise, practical delivery and sector engagement is what makes the Eden partnership valuable to Foresight.