Coronavirus and the impact on Ecological Consultancies

The role of an ecologist

The majority of our work entails facilitating developers with planning applications. It’s our job to assess sites before they are developed, identify the habitats present, features of biodiversity interest and measures needed to avoid, mitigate, or compensate for potential impacts and ensure the proposals deliver a net gain for biodiversity.

We appreciate it’s not life or death (for humans at least), but for tens of thousands of people, ecology is our way of life, paying the mortgage and allowing us to sleep soundly at night, knowing we’ve done our very best to protect wildlife in a country where resources are always under pressure.

I am the owner of Ecology by Design, an SME based in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire. Coronavirus presents some challenges to our business and our industry as a whole. Some of these impacts will be felt by many disciplines, some are rather unique to us and our clients.

Seasonality

Our job is very seasonal. In the spring we are rushed off our feet doing habitat surveys, building assessments, great crested newt surveys, implementing species licences, quoting for work and networking. In the summer we are even more busy, undertaking the majority of habitat and protected and priority species surveys and applying for licences to be implemented in the autumn. In the autumn we are finishing off protected species surveys, completing reports for clients and implementing a great deal of on-site mitigation. Winter is the quietest time of year, when only preliminary surveys and assessments are taking place alongside a small amount of mitigation, tendering and reporting. Given the virus is hitting us now, at our quietest time it is both good and bad. At this time, we need every team member to be at capacity to bring in work and set us up for the year ahead. Naturally, we each have a little more flexibility and availability though, so we’re able to juggle work that little bit more. As the year goes on and the demands of projects and their deadlines increase, the burden through travel restrictions, isolation or sick leave will be harder felt. I fear there will be a great deal of stress in delivery of work this year.

Isolation affecting delivery of work

We are a team of ten ecologists and already have two of our team self-isolating; one due to showing symptoms themselves and the other due to their child. We’ve had to reshuffle work around them to ensure surveys and reporting deadlines don’t slip.

We’ve reviewed the diary and are engaging with our clients, encouraging them to bring forward surveys where possible bearing in mind the potential need for more people to self-isolate and/or an introduction of more stringent advice from the government in the coming weeks or months.

Surveys

Many of our larger surveys entail us roaming through woodlands, grasslands and fields looking for wildlife. There aren’t too many constraints on us doing this as we’re often lone working or in pairs, although our reliance of service stations for food and a toilet break could be putting us at increased risk of exposure.

CPDs and Networking

We like to maintain strong relationships with our clients which is why we offer Continued Professional Development (CPDs) whereby we go to their offices and give them an overview of anything ecological which would be of use to them and their team, whether that’s reviewing species licences, survey timings or what’s new in the world of ecology. The majority of these are in the spring, gearing up for the year ahead. We have several programmed for the coming weeks, with one already postponed and we anticipate more to follow in the coming weeks.
The impacts on CPDs, talks and training events can also be felt by our team. We pay for them to attend external training so they can further their professional development. On a daily basis we’re seeing courses cancelled or postponed due to those not wanting to increase the potential risk of exposure to those attending.

We also have our own supplier day coming up: our opportunity to share knowledge, cake and thanks and get some feedback too. We’ll be keeping a close eye on government advice and thinking carefully about whether this should go ahead rather than risking the potential for increased risk to our staff and suppliers at a critical time of year for us.

Remote working

As ecologists we are used to travel and flexible working. In the last few months we’ve thankfully phased everyone from having desktop computers to laptops to improve the flexibility for staff. Alongside this we have a cloud-based server which can be accessed from anywhere. This is paying dividends now as we can each work remotely. Whilst for some, working from home is a more efficient way of doing so, away from the distractions of chat and questions at the office. For others, the greenhouse, laundry, dishes stacking up, or cat is far more alluring than sitting hunched over a laptop. Being in the office is a self-regulating environment: whilst there may be some ‘homing from work’ going on, it’s typically 7-8 hours of actual work. When at home, it takes serious focus and will-power to stay motivated to avoid those distractions. In addition, it’s generally less comfortable to do so. At work we complete our display screen assessment so that it’s as comfortable as possible. At home, few of us have a dedicated office, so instead we’re sat at the dining table, breakfast bar, on a sofa or even in bed, awkwardly tapping away at a laptop which is by no means optimal (I miss my dual screen setup already).

Communication

Our team dynamic is built on strong communication. We have team meetings every Monday morning. These check-ins are vital for programming, sharing knowledge and considering health and safety effectively. We’re looking into new ways we can maintain this communication when working remotely such as Zoom video meetings, although I’m sure it will be less efficient. Some more remote team members also have the added complications of poor mobile reception and/or slow internet to contend with, so I’m sure one size won’t fit all. We must all seek to take advantage of the virtual world to continue effectively communicating with each other and clients.

Impacts on species licences

We work with our clients to secure derogation licences for development activities which would otherwise be unlawful. When applying for a licence such as a European Protected Species Mitigation licence from Natural England, we have to specify the timing of the licence; pre-development works, implementation and monitoring. It is a legally binding document and we have to adhere to it by the letter. Should we not be able to implement the licence due to the virus, there may be considerable time and financial implications for our clients, as we’d have to seek a modification to the licence which may need to be supported by additional surveys. Only time will tell how many projects are affected and the knock-on impacts this will have on the already over-stretched teams at natural England dealing with the outfall.

Projects on hold due to potential recession

The impacts of the global financial crisis in 2007-2008 were hard felt in the ecology world. Lots of large development projects were put on hold overnight and consultancies had to make some tough decisions. Many had to make redundancies to stay afloat. Whilst recruiting now, we still feel the knock-on effects of this, as senior ecologists are hard to come by, potentially as a whole swathe of ecology graduates from 2008-2010 struggled to find work and chose to pursue other careers. We fear that given the potential for a global financial crisis again as a result of the outbreak, there could be more knock-on effects in the ecology world.

Harder to get hotels

We have to stay away a lot with our job, usually in B&Bs and hotels. We’re uncertain what that will mean for us this year with the hospitality industry likely hit hardest by government advice about social distancing. Will there be a further crackdown on such things? If we bounce back quickly from the virus, will there be so many people holidaying in the UK rather than abroad that there’s huge competition for hotel beds? Only time will tell what the implications are for us delivering surveys this year. Either way, it could have huge impacts on our logistics and hence costs.

Positives

We’ve had to think long and hard about what some positives of this situation are, as it’s not an easy situation to be in by any stretch. But…

Business as usual

It is not quite business as usual but for us the transition is perhaps much easier than for others. Our adaptable business model means that staff were already partly working from home using mobile technology and cloud software to deliver projects. The field aspects of our work often mean we can be quite isolated from human contact and the many health and safety risks of our work mean we already had plenty of hand sanitizer and other protective equipment. So for us to some extent it is business as usual. The challenge is how this impacts our clients and following a lag period, us.

Unique Selling Point

The majority of our business relies on repeat and referral business. Our client relationships are hugely important to us and we constantly strive to be a truly trusted business partner. During difficult circumstances investing time to really understand client problems and constantly strive to add value to them can result in some of your best clients going forward.

Increased business enquiries

Working with our SEO agency we track enquiries and traffic to our website. It is strange to say but we have seen a sharp spike since the crisis began. This could be due to people rushing to get projects going or it could be because people are having to work at home, work more efficiently and now have more time to focus on communication. The challenge for us is rising to the occasion and turning this spike into customers.

Invest/ Grow

Perhaps the biggest opportunity for those that can afford to is to drive growth during this period. For investors there is a saying about selling during a ‘bull’ market and buying during a ‘bear’ market. Applying the same theory to the current situation or any crisis can reap huge rewards for the brave entrepreneur. We are a growing business and in the current uncertain times it can be a great time to reassure and gain new clients, demonstrate your USP to clients and why you are better than the competition, and most importantly invest in growing your team. It is not for the faint hearted but with risk comes great reward and we mean to turn this crisis to our advantage!

The content of this article has kindly been provided by Ben Gardner and Laura Grant. Ben Gardner and Laura Grant are part of the senior management team at Ecology by Design.

Ecology by Design is an independent ecology consultancy working nationwide with head office in Oxfordshire. They provide a wide range of ecology services ranging from bat and newt surveys to large ecological impact assessments and mitigation.