elemental was created to support landscape industry design with best outcomes for climate and nature. By considering the impacts from materials use, carbon accounting, biodiversity, water impacts, communities and society, elemental offers information that will help design and landscape businesses to be mindful of their interactions.
Applicable for different disciplines, from private domestic garden design to public landscape architecture, elemental enables the landscape industry to reduce impacts and optimise benefits for climate and nature.
Developed by Nicholsons and spearheaded by their Managing Director Liz Nicholson, Elemental was created in cooperation with the Society of Garden + Landscape Designers (SGLD), the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI), the Landscape Institute (LI), the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA).
To encourage industry adoption, elemental is free to use by garden designers and landscapers, with the aim for the tool to become an integrated, recognisable, industry trade mark of sustainability.
“elemental makes sustainable design attainable,”explains Liz Nicholson, Managing Director, Nicholsons. “It is NOT a standard, it is not an audit – it is a supportive tool that helps us deliver better landscapes for climate and nature. elemental is a holistic tool that was developed through a series of Technical Advisory groups made up of industry experts.”
elemental addresses key aspects of sustainable design;
- Resource management, circularity of materials and unavoidable waste
- Soil understanding, respect and care
- Embodied carbon of materials and activities (Later versions of elemental will incorporate data for carbon sequestration in soil and in different vegetation types as it becomes available)
- Biodiversity and ecologies
- Water irrigation, drainage and air
- Society, community and access
According to Nicholson, designers and contractors need to take ownership of all impacts that may be reported under Task Force for Nature Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Task Force for Climate Related Financial Disclosures. TNFD includes a set of disclosure recommendations and guidance that encourage and enable business and finance to assess, report and act on their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.
No design solution will be perfect and not impact the environment, in one way or another, explains Nicholson but elemental will enable designers to compare the environmental impacts of different design solutions to come to the best solution for the site, the environment and the needs of the people who will inhabit the garden and/or landscape.
“elemental will meet the designer where they are on their sustainability journey and offer guidance and resources to further develop understanding of a particular area. CPD will also be offered to bring up to date knowledge around the six pillars of environmental design,” she added.
Training for elemental will be available, the dates for which will be confirmed. Designers and/or landscapers keen to test the elemental can get in touch with Nicholsons via contact@nicholsonsgb.com.