Awards 2021 Winner’s Spotlight: Consultancy of the Year – Small

Wildwood Ecology Limited

This award was sponsored by

Wildwood Ecology’s vision is ‘to protect the natural environment, restore biodiversity loss, and address the climate emergency, so that future generations may prosper’. To help achieve this vision the company operates within a set of core values, namely:

• Do well by doing good
• Collaboration over competition
• Make work enjoyable
• Commit 100% to customer service

From this foundation, Wildwood Ecology’s team of 9 ecologists provides expertise in a wide range of survey and consultancy services across a range of projects. Despite national lockdowns in England and Wales, the Wildwood team successfully managed to complete 257 projects and gave 3,300 hours to help their clients between March and September 2020. The team is proud to maintain a 100% success rate in obtaining protected species licences for their clients over this period. Their work emphasises the delivery of high-quality services and advice, including for exemplar projects including The Landmark Trust’s Llwyn Celyn farmhouse, Abergavenny.

Wildowood Ecology provides regular opportunities for staff to develop their knowledge and understanding and learn both technical and transferable skills, which are reviewed quarterly. Training is aligned with the CIEEM Competency Framework and the company offers all staff one paid day per month to volunteer with organisations that reflect the ethos of the company. This enables them to learn new skills, impart and receive knowledge and contribute to the wider society they live in.

The team also provides training and knowledge sharing for its clients, including CPD for architects, planning consultants, local authorities, and government agencies. Managing Director, Richard Dodd has been a guest lecturer at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester since 2017, delivering their Ecological Consultancy module to final year students. Richard is also a mentor under the CIEEM mentoring scheme.

Richard has also established and supported bat groups across Wales, written articles on wildlife conservation for Natur Cymru magazine and contributed to the first edition of the Bat Survey Guidelines. He has presented at the UK National Bat Conference and regional conferences (Wales and South West England) and is a trainer for the Bat Conservation Trust. Principal Ecologist, Alex Pollard, collects valuable environmental long-term datasets for use within the Organisms and Environment Group research at Cardiff University. She also supervises PhD, Masters and undergraduate students in climate change, bird and bat research. During 2020 the company launched its Ecology Training Academy, providing on-line courses for both aspiring and practising ecologists.

Over the past few weeks, we have been posting further information on each of the 2021 CIEEM Awards Winners over on our blog. Further details on each project/individual is set out in our 2021 CIEEM Awards Booklet.