Skip to content

Mycelia

A solution to help Local Planning Authorities drive better environmental outcomes in less time. Includes end-to-end support for BNG, covering validation, assessment, monitoring, and reporting.

Ecology in local government is vital but overstretched

Enhancing nature is becoming ever more important for Local Authorities, and requires expert ecological input.

Yet most Authorities are struggling to recruit and support enough ecologists.

Biodiversity Net Gain brings new opportunities…

Mandatory BNG can help Local Authorities to generate better local environments, improved outcomes for citizens, and revenue to support their activities.

…But also new responsibilities and risks

The workload of validating and assessing BNG plans, and monitoring and reporting for 30 years, could drastically slow down planning.

New duties to manage and enforce BNG means new legal requirements and challenges.

Mycelia helps Local Planning Authorities manage Biodiversity Net Gain

Mycelia helps local government teams with every aspect of the BNG process – from validation and assessment, to monitoring and reporting.

Developed through collaborative research involving ecologists at more than 40 Local Authorities, it helps ecologists, planners, and validation officers drive better outcomes with less stress and more control.

Quote

The Verna team includes ecologists, software engineers, and policy experts who really want to help Local Authorities get better outcomes.

They’re working hard to understand what local government ecologists need, and how their software can support the whole planning system.

We’ve provided feedback and thoughts, which the team have taken on board at each step of the design and it has been a pleasure to collaborate with them on designing a solution.
David Warburton CBiol MRSB FLS MCIEEM, London Borough of Sutton

Key benefits and features

  • Save time across teams and throughout the BNG process, both pre- and post-determination, with tailor-made software.
  • Drive better environmental outcomes, using tools designed by ecologists and environmental scientists, with links to wider issues including Local Nature  Recovery Strategies.
  • Catch and manage risks, with smart checks, alerts, and prioritisation underpinned by ecological science.
  • Drag-and-drop import of the Biodiversity Metric, and radically easier interfaces for interacting with it at validation, assessment, and monitoring. No need to sift through spreadsheet-style data ever again.
  • Full and faithful recreation of the BNG algorithm. Powers smart error-checking, including automated validation checks, and auto-reporting of Biodiversity Unit progress.
  • Handles all BNG requirements, including tracking monitoring data, responsibilities, and deadlines for every case, and automated reporting for statutory duties and wider stakeholders.
  • Ecology-driven risk-flagging and prioritisation, based on insights from leading ecologists.
  • Built from the ground up to handle and display spatial data. Enables geospatial functions including map views and location-based search, and is futureproofed for receiving applicants’ GIS data.
  • Based on extensive research with local government ecologists, and co-developed with a working group of seven Local Planning Authorities.

“Are Local Planning Authorities ready to monitor mandatory BNG?”

The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) has published an article on monitoring, based on joint research by Verna and a group of seven Local Planning Authorities.

Quote

I joined Verna after a career in academia and consulting, to build tools that help ecologists apply our expertise faster and better – so that as a profession we can maximise our positive impact on nature and the environment.
Dr Mikael Forup MCIEEM, Verna’s Director of Ecology

Book a demo

We’ll try to understand your priorities, and explore whether or not Mycelia would meet your needs.