Toyota’s Burnaston car manufacturing plant in Derbyshire. Here, the aim was to demonstrate how a working industrial site can successfully support biodiversity through environmental land management. The project will secure a green legacy for the future, without compromising the cost or efficiency of its core business. 

How did it happen? 

A team from Kew was involved in landscape planning and in providing expertise in horticulture, land restoration, seed quality, and project implementation with local landscape designers and contractors. 
 
The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust also collaborated in the project. Burnaston employees were encouraged to engage in the project, learn about the thinking behind the changes and get involved in the planting process. 

What’s the result? 

The 2.35 million square metre (580 acre) Burnaston site contains areas of meadow, grassland, wetlands, woods and hedgerows, and is home to more than 400 plant and animal species, some of them rare and protected. 
 
Working with Kew’s world-class experts in plant science, we have created even more natural habitats, with a plan to restore a further 230,000 square metres by 2020. 

What’s next? 

Experts from Kew are helping biodiversity projects at Toyota’s sites in Belgium: our European headquarters in Brussels, technical centre in Zaventem and parts logistics centre in Diest. 
 
These and other projects clearly demonstrate that a manufacturer, working with an internationally renowned research and educational organisation, can create an ecologically rich environment that connects with its local surroundings and community, to ensure a future society in harmony with nature.