First Ecology, one of the county’s leading ecological consultancies is pleased to reveal that it has undergone a rebrand, unveiling its new look to customers and the market today. As of today, the First Ecology brand will be retired and the company will operate under the new name and brand of Somerset Wildlife Trust Consultancy (SWTC for short).
The First Ecology brand has served the market and its client base very well for nearly 15 years. In that time, its team has grown to reflect the sector’s evolving needs, and accrued new skills in a range of areas, growing its portfolio of services to serve a range of different industry sectors.
New legislation and significant changes in the regulatory environment, particularly resulting from the Environment Act 2021, means that it has the opportunity to expand its services further and provide a more holistic service to its clients. It felt that it needed a new modern brand that reflects its strategy and enabled them to deliver that offer and to grow and innovate in line with future developments.
Why the Somerset Wildlife Trust Consultancy? Whilst it has operated as a separate entity operationally, First Ecology’s purpose has always been strategically aligned with the charity’s goal of nature conservation and as such, all of its profits are channelled back to the charity.
Statutory requirements to mitigate for nature and biodiversity loss such as Biodiversity Net Gain, and the rise in voluntary green markets, including those for Carbon and Nutrient Credits means that increasingly, ecological services no longer exist purely as a standalone service requirement, but are fast becoming the cornerstone upon which organisations are able to deliver more impactful, measurable and environmentally sustainable projects.
Therefore, aligning the 60 years of land and habitat conservation experience of the charity and optimising the knowledge and skills of its people to support the commercial work of the consultancy work going forwards makes absolute common sense and it is proud to be able to make that association directly and visibly in this way.
Helen Ward, Consultancy Manager, SWTC says: “We’re excited about the new brand – our offer has evolved to the point where we are able to deliver a full range of ecological and land management consulting services, providing clients with everything they need for planning and statutory purposes in one place. We needed a new and future-proof brand to operate under, and one that also reflects our ability to leverage the enormous expertise of the charity’s conservation team – something that makes our offer unique and highly credible and dependable – which is particularly valuable in new markets such as carbon and biodiversity. Whether it is a small-scale ecological survey, landscape-scale land management plan or carbon project, we have the trained and licensed staff that can deliver sustainable projects that are fully compliant with legislation and can be effectively measured and monitored over time using with recognised science, data and evidence.”
Georgia Dent, Somerset Wildlife Trust says: “First Ecology has been diligently delivering a range of high quality ecological, land management and arboricultural services across the county and beyond as a subsidiary for 15 years. They have an excellent reputation for the quality of its people and results. Clients’ needs are changing to meet the demands of environmental legislation and environmental standards; aligning the experience and skills of the whole of Somerset Wildlife Trust, including subsidiaries, enables us to better serve a wider range of clients to help them deliver more impactful and environmentally sustainable projects.
“In both our charity and consultancy, Somerset Wildlife Trust operates to the highest professional standards offering high integrity solutions to environmental challenges. It’s an exciting time for commercial services as new nature markets emerge and we think the new brand will give us the presence that reflects our ability to help companies deliver.”
