Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is pleased to announce that Explore Manufacturing, based in Worksop, is continuing as a business supporter of the Trust in 2025. Explore Manufacturing is the Centre of Excellence for Modern Construction (CEMC) for Laing O’Rourke, an international engineering enterprise, with operations in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East.  

The relationship commenced in late 2022 with Explore Manufacturing becoming a business supporter of the Trust in 2023. This partnership dovetails with Laing O’Rourke’s target to be a net zero business by 2050, with a clear strategy to make a positive contribution to the environments in which it operates.  Laing O’Rourke is one of only a handful of construction and engineering firms globally to have committed to becoming an Adopter of the new Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), demonstrating a clear commitment to analysing and reporting its impacts and dependencies on nature.

This partnership with the Trust continues to inspire, educate, and engage Explore Manufacturing’s employees and their families to embrace the natural environment and become champions for nature’s recovery both on their own site and in the wider community. 

As part of this initiative the Trust will be hosting Wellbeing Walks at the Trust’s Idle Valley Nature Reserve (IVNR), near Retford, over the year for Explore staff to get closer to nature and appreciate how it can boost their mental health.

To coincide with World Environment Day on June 5^th 2025 Explore staff will be helping the Trust with important site conservation activities enabling staff to take action and learn new skills during a Wild Work Day at IVNR, helping the charity achieve its vision for the reserve to be a wildlife-rich landscape for people to enjoy and nature  to thrive.

Explore Manufacturing continues to act on its own site near Worksop, to ensure that both wildlife and employees continue to thrive and to be part of the Trust’s ‘Wilder Nottinghamshire Network’ - a movement for nature across the county inspiring individuals, community groups and businesses to collectively act for nature.  The company works with the Trust’s specialist ecological consultancy subsidiary, East Midlands Ecology Consultants Ltd (trading as EMEC Ecology) to implement the site’s biodiversity action plan.

The Explore site contains a diverse range of habitats; the blend of lowland calcareous grassland, deciduous woodland, lakes, ponds and native hedgerows providing important habitats for a variety of species. The mosaic of grassland, bare ground and woodland provide a diverse habitat for grass snakes, slow worms and lizards and the woodland and grasslands supports hedgehogs, brown hares and butterfly species. The biodiversity action plan is directed towards protecting these species, as well as providing opportunities for more plants, animals and invertebrates to flourish.

Explore Manufacturing’s Environmental Sustainability Lead, Catherine Blackburn, commented;

“We’re proud to continue to support the important work that the Trust does within our community, and to be a part of the drive to improve biodiversity within Nottinghamshire. Our staff value the opportunity to get out into nature and participate in the Wild Work Days, in particular. Our site holds a lot of ecological value in its own right, and our staff feel a real connection to that.” 

Emily Patrick, Partnerships and Trust Manager, at the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust commented  ”It’s great to see the impact an organisation can make to enhance their onsite space for wildlife, supporting the Trust and working with EMEC, our ecological consultancy, shows value of working in partnership for wildlife. Engaging employees is all part of this journey, we look forward to welcoming Explores’ employees to our sites to get out in nature, take part in Wild Work Days and enjoy the benefits being out natural greenspace can have on people’s wellbeing.”