UK insurers paid out a record £585 million in home weather-damage claims in 2024¹, 28% more than the previous year and nearly double the annual average of five years ago. Against this backdrop, QBE and seven businesses from its claims supply chain are partnering with carbon credit specialist Nature Broking to take meaningful action on nature and climate by joining forces through an innovative collective called the QBE Buyers Club.
Chosen from insurer QBE’s supply chain, the collective promises a 50-year commitment to fund rewilding and carbon credit generation at Boothby Wildland, Lincolnshire. It is believed to be the UK’s first formal supply-chain-led nature restoration consortium. The participating companies, some of whom are otherwise competitors, are: insurer QBE; law firms Clyde & Co, DWF, and Keoghs; risk and claims administration partner Sedgwick; claims company Prism Claims Group; accident repair group FMG; and a national salvage dealer.
The QBE Buyers Club reflects a broader shift in how businesses approach climate action from individual commitments to collective investment across the value chain. Nature Broking developed the consortium model specifically to address this: nature investment made in collaboration with QBE’s claims supply chain, putting employees, suppliers and customers at the heart of a shared sustainability strategy.
Developed with leading rewilding organisation Nattergal and brokered by Nature Broking, the consortium will fund the removal of carbon across 18 dedicated acres over the project’s lifetime. Across the whole 500+ acre site, the project is estimated to generate 25,000 verified credits over 100 years under the UK Carbon Code (UKCCC). The reintroduction of two beavers to the West Glen river is one of the most tangible interventions; their dam-building activity is expected to restore wetland habitat, improve water quality and accelerate biodiversity recovery across the site.
Instead of purchasing credits in isolation, eight businesses with existing commercial relationships have pooled their commitment into a shared, verified piece of land. It’s one they can visit, report on annually, and point to as concrete evidence of long-term action. Nature becomes a shared asset rather than a line item.
The project builds on landmark research conducted at the Knepp Estate in Sussex — the UK’s longest-running rewilding project — which found that rewilded soil stores carbon at rates comparable to established broadleaf woodland, with most sequestration occurring below ground in the soil. Boothby Wildland is the first project to commercialise that research at scale.
Luke Baldwin, CEO, Nature Broking, said: “The voluntary carbon market works best when buyers are connected to the land they’re funding. They can visit it, see it change, and show their stakeholders something real. The QBE Buyers Club is exactly that model: a supply chain investing together in a project that is verifiably, tangibly theirs.”
Joanna Lloyd-Davies, Head of Sustainability, International, QBE, said: “The QBE Buyers Club supports all three of our sustainability focus areas: supporting climate resilience and the transition, enabling a resilient workforce and partnering for impact in this case, through our value chain. The Buyers club will improve biodiversity outcomes in nature-depleted areas, prioritising nature recovery whilst generating high-integrity carbon credits. It is a first-of-a-kind model that puts our value chain at the heart of our sustainability strategy, and gives every partner a direct stake in a piece of land they can visit, watch recover, and be proud of.”
Claire Traynor, Chief Commercial Officer at Nattergal, said: “At Nattergal, we believe collaboration multiplies impact, and this partnership epitomises that. By bringing together a collective of businesses to co-invest upfront in the long-term restoration of Boothby Wildland, the QBE Buyers Club is meaningfully contributing to scaled and measurable environmental outcomes, while demonstrating a credible model for private investment in nature. We hope it inspires others to take a similarly ambitious approach.”
1 Association of British Insurers, February 2025
