The Almond Buyers Club project will design and test a collaborative, demand-side model for nature-based water outcome markets in the Almond catchment, as a practical demonstrator for the wider Forth system. It responds directly to Innovation Challenge 5: Developing nature-based water outcome markets – A focus on buyers and demand.
Led by Promoting Economic Pluralism (PEP), with Forth Rivers Trust (FRT) as regional expert partner and in-kind input from Scottish Water, Edinburgh City Council, Rettie & Co and The James Hutton Institute, the project tackles a core gap: multiple organisations in the Almond (utilities, local authorities, infrastructure operators, landowners and businesses) face shared water risks – flooding, CSOs, water-quality failures and infrastructure disruption – but currently develop projects and business cases largely in isolation. As a result, nature-based solutions (NbS) that could address several risks simultaneously are under-funded and poorly connected to emerging nature markets.
Over six months, the project will:
- Define a concise list of Almond/Forth water outcomes that NbS can deliver (e.g. reduced peak flows and flood frequency, reduced CSOs, improved water quality), and assess which are realistically tradable.
- Map and interview key buyers to understand their drivers, constraints and willingness to pay for these outcomes.
- Develop practical metrics, monitoring and assurance options that give buyers confidence that outcomes are real, additional and durable.
- Co-design and test buyers-club governance and cost-sharing models, including cross-subsidisation where several buyers benefit from shared NbS, and shape 2–3 Almond pilot concepts.
The project will deliver an Almond Buyers Club Blueprint, reusable methods and data, and a set of worked examples that FORTH2O partners can adapt in other Forth catchments and beyond. It will share learning through a cross-sector workshop, concise reports, a policy/practice brief and structured data contributions to FORTH-ERA, helping to build long-term capacity for buyer-led nature-based water outcome markets.
