Re_Set establishes new partnership with Rewilding Britain

Strategy consultancy Re-Set has announced a new strategic partnership with Rewilding Britain. The alliance sees the firms enter a joint commitment to tackle the climate emergency in the UK by sharing related expertise and insights.

Over the past few years, discourse regarding nature conservation has shifted rapidly across Europe and the world. As the world faces unprecedented ecological challenges, there is now a growing appetite for ‘rewilding’. That means that rather than preserving an ever more precarious status quo, a number of countries have actively sought to restore and enhance natural processes and core wilderness areas, with the reintroduction of keystone species, and even apex predators, into their ecosystems.

Rewilding Britain is an organisation founded in 2015 that aims to promote the rewilding of the UK. It has seen interest in rewilding boom in recent times, receiving record levels of requests for guidance, including over 50 landowners in 2020 alone, along with partnerships with almost 200,000 acres of land between them, and thousands of smaller-scale land managers, gardeners, individuals and local groups. Amid this interest, last year the organisation announced a new initiative to catalyse and support the rewilding of at least 300,000 acres of land – an area the size of Greater Manchester or North York Moors National Park – plus marine areas within the next three years.

Rewilding Britain will not be working alone, however, and works with businesses large and small to help upscale rewilding across the country. Corporate partners include regulatory advisory firm Thornbridge, financial services company Standard Life Aberdeen, and most recently consulting firm Re_Set.

Co-Founder James Bidwell commented, “I'm hugely proud to announce a new partnership with Rewilding Britain, the first and only country-wide organisation in Britain focused on rewilding to reverse climate change… Our agility and independence give us the ability to reach out further and more widely than other larger, more purely profit-driven concerns. We are also one of the very few B Corp consultancies in the UK.”

As a partner, innovation and sustainability consultancy Re_Set will provide up to 1% of its sales to Rewilding Britain, as well as collaborating to share expertise and insights on climate change. The partnership will form part of a wider initiative by Re_Set to build a coalition of global partners to accelerate change, while the firm is also a member of 1% for the Planet, an international organisation, whose members contribute at least 1% of their annual sales to environmental causes.

Rebecca Wrigley, Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain added, “This new partnership with Re_Set will help us take forward a vision of hope as we take concerted action for major nature recovery across at least 30% of Britain over the next decade – tackling the nature and climate crises, restoring the web of life on which we all depend, and creating opportunities for local communities.”

Sustainability is a hot topic in the consulting industry, with many leading firms offering advice to clients on shifting from outdated business models towards a greener more purpose-led approach. Earlier in 2021, for instance, Big Four giant PwC announced a $12 billion investment in recruitment to capture the booming market for environmental, social and governance advice. However, according to Bidwell, the industry could still do more to help the struggle against climate change.

He concluded, “I firmly believe that consultancies, like any other business, need to do even more to leverage their global footprint and take a collaborative approach with organisations leading the way. Advising others is not enough. You need to walk the walk as well as talk.”