Introducing: the QBE Buyers Club
Nature Broking has structured and brokered the UK insurance sector's first value-chain nature restoration consortium, the QBE Buyers Club. It brings together QBE and seven firms from its claims value chain, Clyde & Co, DWF, Keoghs, Davies, Sedgwick, Prism Claims Group and FMG, to co-invest in nature restoration at Boothby Wildland in Lincolnshire over the next 50 years.
Working with rewilding company Nattergal, we structured the investment to fund carbon removal across 18 dedicated acres of the 600-hectare former arable farm, expected to sequester up to 1,250 tonnes of CO2e over the fifty years. Land once intensively farmed and severely degraded is being restored into a mosaic of grassland, wetland, woodland and scrub, with target outcomes including increased soil organic carbon stocks, measurable nature recovery, and improved water quality and natural flood management. Additionallty, beavers have already been reintroduced to the West Glen river.
The design draws on independent evidence, including Agricarbon's soil sampling at the Knepp Estate, that rewilded land can sequester carbon at rates comparable to newly planted woodland, and the 50-year horizon reflects the ecology: it takes sustained commitment to progress past initial habitat recovery into a functioning ecosystem.
The consortium also enables members to engage employees in sustainability initiatives, with the opportunity to visit Boothby Wildland twice a year to see the recovery in action and participate in on-site volunteering projects.
Luke Baldwin, Chief Executive Officer at Nature Broking, said: "The voluntary carbon market works best when buyers are connected to the land they're funding. The QBE Buyers Club is a supply chain investing together in a project that is verifiably and tangibly theirs."
Joanna Lloyd-Davies, Head of Sustainability, International at QBE, said: "The QBE Buyers Club supports all three of our sustainability focus areas. 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.”
Within 48 hours of launch, the announcement reached nearly one million readers, with coverage across publications including Business Green, Carbon Pulse, Insurance Post, Insurance Business, The Lawyer and Solicitors Journal. While it is the first consortium of its kind, Nature Broking designed this framework to be applied across other sectors and value chains, opening the door to further opportunities for nature restoration at scale.
July 2026: QBE Buyers Club visit Boothby Wildland.
Cover image credit: Boothby Wildland | Jonathan Perugia for Nattergal.