Celebrating World Environment Day 2026: Our work with the natural environment

Each year, World Environment Day is an opportunity for institutions, companies and governments around the world to mobilise, discuss change and drive global action for a healthier and more sustainable planet.

This year’s theme is climate action. To mark the day, we’d like to showcase the work of our Land and Development Professional Standards team and explore how we’re helping make a difference.

The work of the Land and Development team ties directly to the focus on climate action. The UK Government implements many of its key international obligations on delivering sustainable development and mitigating climate change through measures incorporated into the planning system.

Protecting and enhancing the natural environment are key government policies to achieve these goals. RICS has been heavily engaged in responding to government consultations on national planning policy, particularly policies that protect and enhance the natural environment. The country’s natural resources play many roles in sustaining the population, and our responses are intended to ensure that the multi-functional roles of land and the natural environment are well understood. For example, finding the balance between protecting the natural environment and accommodating its use for food production.

Recognising the immense value of the natural environment, RICS is proud to support the #NatureIsGrowth campaign, highlighting the importance of nature-positive approaches in delivering better, more resilient places for people and communities. RICS continues to lead key initiatives that promote the importance of natural resources and urge governments to integrate nature-positive principles into policy and practice.

Specifically in relation to capacity building in our sector, RICS is currently undertaking professional guidance on meeting government’s objective to increase biodiversity by 10% in new housing developments. This guidance is based on government funded research undertaken by the University of Manchester. It will help practitioners understand the different tools they may be using and apply them more effectively to achieve the biodiversity enhancement aims.

More broadly, RICS is reviewing research conducted ten years ago entitled ‘Placemaking and value, 2016’. This looked at the contribution of high standards of development, including the provision of nature-based solutions and sustainable urban drainage systems, in creating great places to live in.

Recognising that land itself has a multitude of roles to play when it comes to climate action, particularly as a carbon sink, RICS International Land Performance Framework (ILPF) produces a tool that provides a clear, practical pathway to measuring the holistic performance of rural land assets. It supports businesses in measuring both strategic and operational land performance, enabling them to identify improvement opportunities and mitigate performance risks. Importantly, the Framework is applicable across all jurisdictions, land types, scales and uses. It also covers a variety of factors from soil and water through to utilities and access. Users can start with selected indicators and expand their portfolio as needs evolve and data availability increases, accommodating businesses of all sizes. The use of ILPF can assist all land-based businesses to showcase their key role in undertaking positive climate action and providing nature-based solutions to assist climate change mitigation.

Additionally, we have produced an insight paper on carbon markets and highlighted how they create new opportunities and challenges for British agriculture, forestry, and the valuation industry in particular. This paper aims to raise awareness of diverse soil carbon sequestration projects (SCSPs) and their potential to incentivise landowners to engage in carbon sequestration, a key aspect of climate change mitigation. Many of those opportunities have global applicability.

To continue driving sustainability and climate action initiatives, we’ll shortly be launching Overview of sustainability practice for surveyors, Global, 1st edition. This new guide aims to provide a holistic understanding of sustainability that can be adopted in your work, no matter your specialism or where you are in your career.

This will be launched alongside our United Nations Global compact communication on engagement report, 2025, which explores our work as an institution and a profession in helping achieve the UN Sustainability Development Goals.

From our standards and guides to research and involvement in consultations, we’re working to ensure that our members, and surveying as a profession, are playing an active role in delivering positive and sustainable change across the built and natural environments.