Accreditation level two: Advanced
Advanced accreditation will focus on developing your pipeline of investment or funding-ready projects, creating your business case for funding and investment, and developing your target operating and financial models.
Level two: Advanced is currently not open for applications
©National Trust Images / James Dobson
Steps
These are the three stages of level two: Advanced accreditation. You'll find suggested steps to take, expected deliverables and the assessment criteria in each section.
At the end of level two, you will be fully accredited and have moved your vision into deliverable, funding or investment-ready project plans.
You will have a robust and comprehensive business case for overall funding/investment and a target operating and blended finance model, taking a sustainable and long-term approach.
You will also have potential funders and investors in mind and be ready to receive funding and start to deliver your pipeline of prioritised projects.
We recommend that you download the accreditation criteria and workbook to guide your application.
Please note all applicants must apply for and become level one: Foundation accredited before progressing to level two.
Aim:
To move your green infrastructure strategy and vision into delivery by developing a detailed pipeline of investable projects. This approach supports a change of mindset from fitting projects to the available funding, to re-imagining your town or city as a connected network of green or blue which delivers for people, place and nature. This is a process of developing and describing the projects, interventions and ongoing developments through which your co-created vision will be delivered. Taking a comprehensive and holistic view of the changes and developing them into a pipeline of projects will help you make the overall case for investment.
Suggested evidence:
We are looking for evidence of your pipeline of partly or fully costed project or transformation plans. Include evidence of co-design, expected outcomes, timeline of project delivery, approach to monitoring and evaluating and learning from change.
Suggested steps to take:
- Explore the Green Finance Institute Investment Readiness Toolkit. It’s an online interactive framework that helps nature-based project developers along a journey towards ‘Investment Readiness’. Some steps may overlap with previous or future areas of work, but it can provide a useful roadmap. Consider how you may use it in developing your projects.
- Understand what is currently happening: review what projects are ongoing, what they are trying to achieve and consider how you may join up multiple projects across the place to align their ambitions and tackle similar challenges. Speak to colleagues, partners and stakeholders already delivering related projects to understand their aims and ambitions and how it may contribute to the town or citywide vision.
- Prioritise project ideas/ interventions you wish to implement: will they be new projects or changes/ enhancements to existing spaces? How will they help to deliver the big outcomes in your vision, strategy and improvement plan?
- Engage wider stakeholders and the public: include priority groups that might have emerged in visioning or the strategy.
- Consider a range of expected outcomes: what are the social (health, wellbeing, activity, community empowerment, social cohesion), environmental (ecosystem services, nature recovery, climate resilience), placemaking (culture and heritage) and economic outcomes each project may bring? You may wish to use the City Explorer Toolkit, the Environmental Benefits from Nature Tool, the Outdoor Recreation Valuation Tool or other tools to get a better understanding of expected outcomes. How do these benefits contribute towards the overarching ambition for your place?
- Consider joining up and building a community of practice: enable connection and collaboration between projects – how can projects be grouped or arranged to present coherent funding opportunities for specific outcomes? This will build understanding of how to unlock funds for projects with different funding streams.
- Phase and plan projects: think about the benefits of each project, the timelines and the costing. Consider how you will co-develop the project plans within the partnership and with communities. Make sure you have at least partially-costed project plans ready for when investment opportunities arise.
- Resource planning: what is the funding need, both up front and ongoing? What other resources do you need?
- Plan for delivery and management planning: consider how will you deliver, including long-term management and the operational model. This may involve thinking differently about traditional maintenance and involve a mindset shift to long-term stewardship and management for desired outcomes – for people, place, nature and climate. This may link to your GI strategy, community empowerment and participation plans and your long-term target operating model.
- Set up monitoring and evaluation processes: revisit this thinking from the foundation stage, how will you monitor and evaluate your plans?
Applications will be assessed on whether the place has:
- Demonstrated a good understanding of current project delivery, prioritising ambitious projects to deliver the green infrastructure goals for the town or city.
- Worked with partners to design these projects, ensuring they demonstrate best practice.
- Engaged with wider stakeholders and the public to align with their expectations and ensure long-term community involvement.
- Described the expected social, environmental, placemaking and economic outcomes of each project and how they contribute to the overall ambition.
- Considered grouping projects based on outcomes and aligned with funders or funding streams.
- Developed a phased timeline and begun to cost the projects.
- Effectively planned the resources required to deliver the projects.
- Considered how the priority projects will be delivered, including long-term management and maintenance.
- Plans to regularly monitor, evaluate and report on progress towards local targets.
Aim:
To develop a comprehensive business case for funding and investment in your place, its vision and your pipeline of projects. This is an opportunity to break out of annual funding cycles and be supported in taking a longer-term, more sustainable and strategic approach to funding and finance.
Suggested evidence:
We are looking for evidence of your overall business case including the strategic rationale, expected benefits and return on investment. Detail your funding or investment strategy, your approach to ring-fencing income and reinvestment, your approach to risk and mitigating actions and a financial justification for the proposed changes in your place.
Suggested steps to take:
- Understand the economic value of your current green and blue assets: prior to any planned change, consider the value of the benefits using a Green Book methodology. Consider the ‘real’ value, not just the maintenance costs or income generated to demonstrate high benefit to cost ratio of green and blue infrastructure. This is about taking an aggregate view of the benefits and costs of nature across all your projects to help express the scale of the opportunity.
- Assess the economic value of your proposed changes: use Green Book methodology. Calculate return on investment where possible from your proposed changes or projects. Are you selling services or ‘goods’?
- Consider the environmental and social value of your proposed changes: what are the expected health, social, environmental and climate outcomes from your proposals?
- Assess resource requirements: what resources will be needed, both to deliver the change or project, and to sustain it for the long term?
- Write the business case: compile findings into a formal business case, explaining the strategic rationale, expected benefits, potential return on investment, risks and mitigating actions and financial justification for the proposed changes or projects.
- Explore funding opportunities: explore in more detail possible funders and buyers of outcomes or ecosystem services. What are the funders or funding streams which are most relevant to the needs of the projects you’ve prioritised? This will help understand their motivations and help align your projects to them.
- Make the specific cases for funding or investment: make the case for why the proposed changes or projects should receive funding or attract finance. This may be tailored to the interests or objectives of particular funders or investors you wish to approach. It will also likely capture some of the benefits to which an economic value has not been applied.
- Consider ring-fenced funding: think about how you will ring-fence surpluses to reinvest in delivery for people and nature. Do you need to set up a new legal entity or work with partners to do this?
Applications will be assessed on whether the place has:
- Considered the economic value of the benefits of current assets.
- Considered the economic value of the proposed changes and the potential return on investment.
- Articulated the potential environmental and social value from the proposed changes.
- Assessed the long-term resource needed to sustain the ambitious change and projects.
- Written a clear business case for overall funding/investment in the place, including the strategic rationale, expected benefits and return on investment, risks and mitigating actions and financial justification for the proposed changes.
- Explored funding opportunities with potential funders (of outcomes or ecosystem services) and made specific cases for investment aligned to their interests and objectives.
- Considered how surpluses will be ring-fenced to deliver benefits for people and nature, perhaps setting up a new legal entity if appropriate and working with partners.
Aim:
To establish your target operating model to deliver the change in the short to medium term, how the green and blue infrastructure will be managed and maintained for the long-term, and how you will partner and empower communities. To develop the detail of your proposed blended finance model to support your ambitions now and in the future.
Suggested evidence:
We are looking for evidence of your new operational model. This may be a written explanation of your model, a workforce development strategy, partnership plans, and your approach to capacity building and empowering local communities. Share evidence of your proposed legal or governance structure, which could include plans for setting up a separate legal entity if relevant. We are also looking for evidence of your proposed blended finance model, including your long-term financial plan and cash flow forecast, funding plans, risk management process, and process for review and evaluation.
Suggested steps to take:
- Assess skills requirements: what skills and expertise do you need and how will you get them? Consider developing the skills of current staff or partnering with others to bring in required expertise. You may wish to explore new job or apprenticeship opportunities, or partner with a social enterprise development organisation or your local economic development team to mainstream GI skills.
- Consider your legal and governance structure: consider the need for a new legal entity and how decisions will be made, including the different roles partners may play. Define roles to enable multiple organisations to lead for change and to build effective coalitions.
- Scope out your financial plan: what is your five to ten-year high-level plan? How will you pilot, test and build towards your ambition with key milestones? This will help inform your long-term business model.
- Create a funding plan: how will you afford the change you seek to make? Consider your corresponding three-year cash flow forecast, thinking about both capital and operational costs. Who will you target for investment or funding and why?
- Review your partnerships: how has your partnership plan evolved since the Foundation stage – who else are you working with now and in what capacity? You may want to consider ways to attract and retain significant philanthropic funding through a city-wide charity or foundation, or in partnership with voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations across the town or city.
- Think about empowerment planning: how will you shift to or build on an empowering and enabling mindset e.g. reinvestment of income generated into community capacity building and local initiatives, asset sharing, or participatory budgeting?
- Manage risk: as a partnership, what is your approach to risk? Co-develop a comprehensive risk management plan.
- Learn, review and adapt: create a culture of and mechanisms for ongoing review and adaptation of the operating model. Set clear opportunities for reflection and adjustment of your goals over time.
Applications will be assessed on whether the place has:
- Created a plan for skills development across the partnership e.g. investing in needed expertise, job, apprenticeship or training creation.
- Set up a legal and governance structure for project delivery across the partnership, defining roles and responsibilities and how decisions will be made.
- Developed a high-level five to ten-year financial plan including plans to pilot and test progress towards the long-term business model.
- Developed a three-year cash flow forecast, thinking about capital and operational costs.
- Developed a partnership plan including how this may evolve over time.
- Developed an empowerment plan for community capacity building.
- Established a plan for risk management.
- Set up mechanisms for continual review and adaptation of the proposed operating and financial models.