Arup to take full ownership of EnTrade

(by Karma Loveday)

Arup is to take full ownership of its EnTrade joint venture with the YTL UK Group.

The nature recovery marketplace started out as an independent business of Wessex Water in 2018. Last February, Wessex parent YTL entered partnership with Arup. Now, Arup is to take full control, with the EnTrade team — including its pioneering managing director Guy Thompson — standing down.

Arup said it plans to establish EnTrade's Environmental Markets Board, which provides independent oversight of catchment markets, as a separate legal entity to support integrity, transparency and good governance.

Among its achievements, EnTrade has successfully piloted two markets — in the Bristol Avon and Somerset — which have delivered £1.36m in environmental credit trades to fund new habitat creation, deliver water quality improvements and enable housing developers to meet their environmental obligations in an efficient and transparent way.