Have you heard about Pudding Wood?
If you haven’t, that’s not a surprise as it’s not quite woodland yet. Right now, the 155-hectare site next to Gatwick Airport is largely managed as livestock fields, with some pockets of natural habitat.
We’re planting 140,000 trees on the site and enhancing the local environment by supporting new habitats including orchard, parkland, meadows and ponds – and supporting the establishment of local priority species, such as the Nightingale, Great Crested Newt and Bechstein’s Bat. The matrix of new habitats will also protect soils, increase water absorption and reduce peak flows of water.
Images of an Elephant Hawk‑moth, Merveille du Jour moth and a bat, recorded on site as part of our Baseline Ecological Surveys.
Bats were caught and handled under licence.
The project is expected to deliver c.25,000 tonnes of carbon sequestration over its lifetime – equivalent to the annual energy use of approximately 4,000 UK households. And importantly, it is part of the work we are doing to explore the commercial opportunities for private finance in climate and nature solutions.
We’re also involving the local community to help to ensure they can benefit from the wellbeing advantages that improved access to nature can bring.
Pudding Wood builds on L&G’s expertise
The project draws on much of the expertise we already have as a business - as an investor and through our management of real assets - as well as the work we have done to understand the opportunities and risks from climate change and nature loss. We are shaping every aspect of the project to deliver it in line with our commercial goals and create long term value.
We are working closely with arboriculture experts, ecologists, natural capital specialists, and the Forestry Commission, to make sure the benefits are robust, measurable and credible. We have involved third-sector organisations who have experience in delivering UK nature legacies, and share our ethos, to ensure the initial design surveys and ongoing stewardship and management of the site over the long term delivers our ambition.
Some of our people and the local community will be closely involved in the site’s transformation – rolling up their sleeves to support planting and reconnect with nature through our volunteering opportunities.
Why it’s such an important project for us
Pudding Wood is a powerful example of our company purpose in action: Investing for the long term. Our futures depend on it. It reflects our long-standing commitment to manage the systemic risks of climate change and nature loss through meaningful, measurable delivery.
As a business, we’ve published a series of climate commitments through our climate transition plan and annual reports, including interim targets from 2030. We’re working hard to decarbonise our business as far as possible, but we know we will be left with residual emissions.
This project is a case for how we can invest in nature-based solutions to generate high-quality, high-integrity carbon removals, as well as biodiversity net gain and societally positive outcomes. It helps to ensure any offsetting we do require for our emissions, is undertaken in a way that’s credible, cost-effective and aligned with our values.
So Pudding Wood's really about using many of the skills we already have - as an investor and as a manager of real assets – to build new capabilities for the future. It’s a strong signal of our:
- drive to create nature-based solutions to the climate crisis
- steadfast commitment to delivering our climate transition plan
It will lay the groundwork for involvement in future woodland creation projects in the years to come.
