Blenheim Estate announces partnership with UK climate tech firm A Healthier Earth on new ForestFactory concept

Today, on International Day of Forests, Blenheim Estate has announced a new partnership with British climate tech catalyst A Healthier Earth on a ForestFactory concept, which will use innovative farming methods to help address the affects climate change.

The partnership brings together the best of British climate and agriculture tech innovation, forestry and estate management to improve the speed, effectiveness and survival rate of plants, to help mitigate climate change-related land and forestry challenges affecting the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Factors including a European shortage of available seeds and tree-stock, changing climate, changing soil conditions and low seedling survival rates are negatively impacting reforestation efforts at historical estates like Blenheim.

A Healthier Earth’s ForestFactory concept tackles these issues, using synthetic biology to deploy geo-specific and genetically diverse forests that sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
ForestFactory is made up of three core elements that will increase the effectiveness and speed of reforestation projects at Blenheim Estate:

• Micro-propagation: using source material, such as buds and twigs, native to local ancient woodland to create genetically relevant plant stock, negating the requirement to grow from seeds
• Autonomous Vertical Farming Systems: growing local seedlings and saplings in vertically-stacked layers in a controlled, autonomous environment, monitored and operated by smart software solutions, to create beneficial characteristics which aid survivability and health.
• Biochar: applying circular biochar to soil before trees are planted, improving water retention and fertility, and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere for over 500 years.

For the last three years, A Healthier Earth has been working on a research and development pilot project to experiment with the ForestFactory concept and most recently operating out of Blenheim Palace’s Walled Garden.

The space has been used to test environmental factors such as light and nutrient conditions in a controlled environment to grow more resilient trees in a shorter timeframe.

Scaling learnings from this pilot project, the partnership aims to plant 600,000 trees over the next three years across Blenheim Estate, using only trees that are local to the Estate. A Healthier Earth will be working with vertical farming technology, data, and manufacturing specialists Vertical Future to first, grow a target of 50,400 saplings in a trial phase, with a view to jointly developing a large-scale facility, capable of producing a minimum of one million saplings per year at full-scale.

Alastair Collier, Chief R&D Officer at A Healthier Earth said: “The effects of climate change on our trees, soil and sapling survival rates mean we urgently need to amend our forestry practices to meet our national reforestation targets. ForestFactory will use a geo-specific and multi-disciplinary approach to support the growth of the country’s most beautiful and biologically diverse forests, starting at Blenheim Estate.”

“Our team of leading researchers and scientists have developed ForestFactory into a scalable climate solution that has the potential directly fight the effects of the climate crisis on our forests. This new partnership with Blenheim Estate is a milestone moment for us as we look to scale our solutions that solve the most urgent regional and global sustainability challenges.”

Roy Cox, Managing Director from Blenheim Estate said: “At a very basic level, we know getting more trees back into the ground is a vital weapon in this climate emergency fight, but today there simply are not enough trees being grown and what trees are being grown are sometimes not right for the areas they are planted or with such volatile weather patterns are just not surviving those early years.

“What we aim to do with the ForestFactory is create a truly scalable and economically viable model for tree production, using offspring from local plant stock, grown throughout the year and planted out in a more resilient way to capture carbon year-on-year for many generations. This project will not only help Blenheim’s pledge to become carbon neutral by 2027, but also others wanting to make a meaningful impact in the fight against climate change.”

The project will be funded by Blenheim Estate, with A Healthier Earth operating and delivering the project with partners including Vertical Future, a global vertical farming technology and data company.

To find out more about ForestFactory, visit https://ahealthierearth.com/forestfactory/

ENDS
Notes to editors

Jamie Burrows, Founder & CEO of Vertical Future said:
“We have been working with the A Healthier Earth team for several years now and have admired their approach to innovation and overall ethos, which very much aligns with ours. Reforestation is such an important topic, and we must all take immediate action to address the climate crisis that is unfolding before us – and at a much faster rate. The ForestFactory concept is an example of an innovative solution that can benefit from Vertical Future’s integrated hardware and software technologies, working with the A Healthier Earth team to assist them in reaching their goals and even going much further. We look forward to further working with the A Healthier Earth team and the Blenheim Estate on this exiting initiative.”

About A Healthier Earth
A Healthier Earth is a climate-tech catalyst that is backed by Oaktree Capital Management to deliver planet-positive projects, at speed and scale. It operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Pure DC and brings together multidiscipline teams of engineers, researchers, and practitioners to develop, deliver and operate solutions that help restore the world, while contributing to the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. A Healthier Earth’s geo-specific approach enables it to develop the best solutions to meet regional and global environmental objectives.

The organisation urges others to join them, bringing ideas, expertise and resources together to solve earth’s problems and accelerate change.

To find out more about biochar and the projects scaling its production, go to: www.ahealthierearth.com

About Blenheim Estate
At Blenheim Estate Land we know that our land is precious and finite, but cared for properly its benefits can be limitless. Yet today there are fresh challenges like climate change, an ageing population and increasing urbanisation.

So our approach – spanning a number of projects – needs to be as sophisticated, enduring and holistic as those issues we face.

By adopting new methods of valuing our natural capital we can view our land resources as part of an ecosystem. An ecosystem whose benefits extend to the air we all breathe, the green transport solutions that connect our communities, the physical and mental health we enjoy, and the quality of the food we consume.

To learn more about Blenheim Estate, go to: https://www.blenheimestate.com/

About Blenheim Palace
Home to the Dukes of Marlborough since 1705, Blenheim Palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Set in over 2,000 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland and designed by Vanbrugh in the Baroque style, it was financed by Queen Anne, on behalf of a grateful nation, following the first Duke of Marlborough’s triumph over the French in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Today it houses one of the most important and extensive collections in Europe, which includes portraits, furniture, sculpture and tapestries.

Blenheim Palace is also the birthplace of one of Britain’s most famous leaders, Sir Winston Churchill, and it was his father who described the vista on entering the Estate from the village of Woodstock as the ‘finest view in England’.

About Vertical Future
Vertical Future (“VF”) is a global vertical farming technology and data company, headquartered in London and founded in 2016. VF designs, manufactures, and deploys autonomous vertical farms across the world into multiple use cases, from food through to pharmaceuticals, and soon to be reforestation. VF’s fully-integrated model is unique globally and its goal is simply healthier people and planet. Working together.
To find out more about Vertical Future, go to www.verticalfuture.com

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