Nature-based businesses and social enterprises (NBEs) have gained increasing development support by local authorities and regional governance in line with global efforts to achieve sustainability targets outlined by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

In Glasgow, one such initiative included a pilot Nature-Based Accelerator programme, delivered by Good Ideas as part of Glasgow City Council’s (GCC) EU-supported H2020 Connecting Nature project, which supported eleven NBEs through summer 2021and who were launched at a final event in September 2021.

This short report presents the insights and outcomes of a short design-led evaluation project, The Value of Nature-Based Enterprise, which mapped and modelled relational forms of sustainable development for newly-launched NBEs. The aim for this evaluative project, post Glasgow hosting COP26, was to evidence the progress and barriers in development for NBEs, in relation to their local enterprise networks and environments. This resulted in the co-design of strategic proposals inclusive of NBEs and the roles they can play in Glasgow’s sustainable development goals.