14 Jan 2026
Today Naturally Compliant turns ten. It feels like a good moment to reflect on how it started, how far we have come and why we do what we do.
My multidisciplinary environmental journey started in January 2015 when I started working for a large consultancy providing Environmental Clerk of Works services on a major energy transmission project in Caithness. It was my first environmental role that was entirely focused on the construction phase. Before that, like many ecologists, my work had mostly involved surveys and reports to feed into the planning system.
I honestly loved my time in Caithness. The team were great and the learning opportunities were huge. But from an environmental perspective, the project was not managed in the way I had expected. I had spent my early career writing information for Impact Assessment, making assumptions about what would happen and that there would not be a significant impact on the receiving environment. The project was worth over £1 billion, so I assumed it would be managed in a way that avoided significant environmental impact. That was not the case.
In December 2015 I went to Hong Kong to stay with a friend over Christmas and New Year. The trip was meant as a holiday but it turned out to be a trip that shaped the next ten years – it gave me a real kick up the backside. When I came back, I was offered a position at Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station, which required me to register a company with Companies House. That job did not work out, but the company stayed.
Soon after that I started work on Kilgallioch Wind Farm as an Environmental / Ecological Clerk of Works. Moving from my role in Caithness, which had a clearly defined and respected set of responsibilities, to a very poorly defined role on a 96-turbine wind farm was eye opening and challenging. I was expected to fulfil several different roles some of which were conflicting and some were outright outwith my control to deliver.
What struck me was that this was another large project where real world environmental performance did not reflect what had been presented in the Impact Assessment, and where there was no real accountability for the damage that was being caused.
These early experiences influenced what I believed the industry needed and what Naturally Compliant should become. Over the next nine years, we have honed our service offering and came to understand that there are many challenges associated with construction phase environmental performance, and that many of those challenges are outside our direct control. What I and the team at Naturally Compliant can do, however, is use our experience of supporting the construction phase to make positive interventions, proactively identify risks and, where appropriate, advise on how those risks can be mitigated. We work with clients and developers to get Impact Assessment right, get the tender process right and get delivery right.
10 years on, my experience tells me that the current status quo isn’t really delivering the way it is intended and the environment is paying the price. This might sound awfully negative, but if we don’t recognise a problem, we can’t fix it.
In December 2025 the Naturally Compliant team reaffirmed our purpose:
“To protect and enhance the environment during the construction phase of a development, while protecting programme and budget.”
That purpose reflects our strengths and our experience of working on real construction sites. Construction phase delivery is just one piece of the puzzle however, and we see things as a cycle.
Utilising our delivery experience to enhance all the elements in the cycle helps us achieve our purpose of protecting and enhancing the environment during the construction phase.
It’s been an incredible 10 years, I’ve learned so much technically, commercially, and emotionally. It hasn’t all been linear either, there have been some incredibly difficult times and enough “wins” to keep us in the game, but we are still here and will be for some time to come!
And to finish, a massive thank you to the team and everyone that we have crossed paths with over the years, we wouldn’t be in the position we are in now without you.
Thank you.
By Simon Knott, Director & Founder
