The Nature Outcomes Catalogue

Understand the economics of delivering outcomes for nature and find the projects that can deliver the most impact, per pound of funding. This is a free, open-source tool.

How much does it cost to deliver outcomes for nature in Britain?

Every project in the catalogue is costed the same way: direct, opportunity and financing costs are combined over a 30-year window, so the cost per outcome can be compared fairly across projects.

The Overview chart displays every project side by side, grouped by environmental outcome or the mechanism used to deliver it. The Projects tab holds the full database: use the filters to focus on the outcomes or places you're interested in, and click any project to see its full cost breakdown.

You can build your own project in the Calculator, or read the Methodology to understand how costs are calculated.

40 projects
15 outcome types

How much does it cost to deliver a particular outcome for nature?

Each panel groups projects that deliver the same outcome for nature, ranked from cheapest to most expensive. Each bar is one project's cost of delivering a single unit of that outcome, in present value terms — split into the five components that make up the total cost, or coloured by how the project was funded.

Present value cost per primary outcome unit, £. Each bar splits into the five cost components. Each panel has its own linear scale; bars more than 6× longer than the next-longest are truncated (⫽) with the actual cost printed. Sorted cheapest to most expensive within each panel.

Each panel groups projects that deliver the same primary environmental outcome, sorted cheapest to most expensive. Cost breakdown splits each bar into the five cost components: development, capital, maintenance, opportunity and financing. Delivery category colours each bar by whether the project is driven by a regulatory requirement, public funding, or voluntary funding. In linear mode each panel has its own £ scale — compare bars within a panel, not across panels — and an extreme outlier (more than 6× the next-longest bar) is truncated with a ⫽ break mark and its actual cost printed. Log mode uses one shared £10–£10M scale across all panels. Bar lengths and printed values are present value costs per unit; the component split shows each component's share of the undiscounted total. Hover a bar for the full breakdown; click it to open the project detail. Use the left-hand filters to narrow to a subset of projects.

Comparing the cost of delivering nature outcomes across different delivery mechanisms

Each dot is a project. Its position represents the full cost of delivering its primary environmental outcome, on a single unit basis. The colour of the dot represents the delivery mechanism that was used to fund the project: either voluntary funding from charities or companies, public funding from the government or a regulatory requirement for companies.

Present value cost per primary outcome unit, £. Each dot is a project; rows are outcome types; colour shows delivery category. Hover a dot for the full cost breakdown; click it to open the project.

Cost per primary outcome unit, in present value terms. Each dot is one project; rows group projects by primary outcome type. The linear scale (default) stops at three times the median project cost — extreme outliers sit beyond a ⫽ break in a grey compressed zone, not to scale, with their actual costs printed beside the dots. Switch to Log for one continuous scale across all projects. Use the colour toggle to compare costs by delivery mechanism or delivery category, and the left-hand filters to show or hide outcome rows.

Cost per primary outcome unit (£, log scale)