A condensed version of the new green audit tool was used by garden designers at the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. According to the RHS, the audit revealed that implemented design changes had a significant impact across the two show garden categories, where carbon emissions were reduced by 28%. The full version of Elemental will be available in the Spring 2025, allowing garden and landscape designers to minimise their impacts on climate and nature.
The green audit tool was created by Nicholsons, spearheaded by their Managing Director Liz Nicholson and developed in cooperation with the Society of Garden Designers (SGD), the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Elemental provides garden designers and landscapers with an environmental impact score of their designs, providing understanding of their impact on planetary resources, carbon emissions, biodiversity and ecology, water quality and quantity, and impact on society and communities. In doing so, project teams are enabled reduce their impact by making different design and material choices to create more climate-positive, nature-friendly spaces.
The goal is for Elemental to become a recognisable, industry trade mark of sustainability, the success of which will depend on industry adoption. Nicholson has therefore engaged various industry bodies and experts, and set up a technical advisory group which features the likes of; Malcolm Anderson – RHS Head of Sustainability, Tom Massey – Garden Designer, Rachel Bailey – Garden Designer, Sheila Das – (new) Head of Gardens National Trust and Kate Bradbury wildlife garden writer and broadcaster.
The goal is for Elemental to be free to use by designers, for projects large or small. An exact launch date of the new green audit tool is expected to be announced soon.