DESIGN FICTION: Nature Buddy

DESIGN FICTION: NATURE BUDDY

Ireland, 2036

It's hard to make friends as an adult.

Even in Ireland, where they'd talk to the wall and the wall would talk back. Once you hit your mid-twenties, new friends are hard to come by. It's harder still to make friends with someone who shares a very different worldview.

But that's exactly what the Irish government forced upon its construction industry in 2030. The Construction in Accordance with Biodiversity Directive set out that all construction companies employing more than 5 people would need to now employ an Environmental Advisor, full or part-time to advise on and report centrally on the environmental and biodiversity measures taken during construction. These biodiversity consultants or 'nature buddies' were mandatory from 2033 and saw strong enforcement immediately.

It started because the builders couldn't be trusted. They'd fucked the rest of us over one too many times. Crumbly concrete, backhanders, planning scandals, bulldozing protected hedgerows. It was felt in Government Buildings, in the urban electorate, and loudest in the glass corridors of Brussels that something needed to be done quickly. The Biodiversity Crisis had heated up, and accelerating more than even the most pessimistic forecasts had warned.

Of course, not all builders were out to destroy the environment. There were good ones too. The ones who felt that we'd inherited an island that was a beacon of natural beauty. Beauty worth preserving. But how could we trust them to compete in an industry of fine margins where too many were willing to cut corners.

So supervision it was.

Conveniently, it provided a slate of jobs for the growing class of college-educated environmentalists who found a work-market largely indifferent to their concerns and qualifications. Nobody mentioned that. Instead, the Directive embedded environmentalism in small business. And grounded it firmly in local communities.

Of course, it did both. But it wasn't exactly an immediate success.

What makes a good Nature Buddy? Well, for a start, a thick skin. The first cohort of Biodiversity Consultants found themselves the focal point of relentless piss-taking and workplace bullying. The building contractors may very well have ordered it. And probably did in certain cases. But a more innocent explanation was the colliding of two very different worlds. The soft academic with their idealism, abstraction and nature-love. And well, everyone else in the construction industry.

By no means a match made in heaven. But a match made necessary by the rapid degradation of biodiversity on the Emerald Isle. A decay that was increasingly visible from year to year. Something had to be done. And this was one of those somethings.

Anyway, it was a bumpy start. Those bumps made national news. A viral trend of eco-smearing kicked off following a TikTok of a Biodiversity Consultant in Monasterevin locked in a portaloo, and pushed over. The excrement-covered eco was fuming, prompting a fairly unimaginative nickname to spread nationwide. Eco-shits.

The Biodiversity Consultants picked fights of their own. 280 building projects were shut down, or received environmental fines of more than E50,000 in 2033 alone as a result of these nature-buddies. 195 cases of workplace harassment and bullying went before the Courts.

So the culture war had two sides. It was a war of attrition.

It was a tumultuous three years, but by the beginning of 2036, both sides had begun to realise that nobody was benefiting from the tit-for-tat.

And so, things began to normalise. The culture of workplace bullying began to lose its vicious edge. Of course there was piss-taking; no outlawing here of that national past-time. But the worst of it was gone, mostly. The original cohort of Biodiversity Consultants had become more pragmatic. They had a better understanding of the realities of the building world and were more able to adapt to its rhythms and constraints.

What helped greatly was a common enemy. The installation of 'Nature Auditors' on each local council was a nightmare for the construction industry. Their usual avenues of complaint to the local politicians, counsellors and TDs (members of parliament) were cut off, as the 'nature czars' were installed by an EU directive. The directive grew from the fact that Ireland had failed to hit any of its Nature and biodiversity targets in the previous 7 years. Ireland was the remedial student and would need special supervision.

And so the Biodiversity Consultants were the means by which the Builders could navigate this new eco-legal reality they faced. And navigate they did. By 2036, the Biodiversity-Alignment Score of the average building works carried out in Ireland surpassed all other EU nations bar Denmark. And the relationships on the ground are a bit more friendly. And a little less covered in shit.

An interview with Paul Coughlan, a building contractor in East Cork: "I suppose it's a good thing in the end. You wouldn't have heard me saying that last year, or the year before. It was a joke. But look, eventually, we've worked it out. We've three advisors between the eight sites we're working on at the minute. So we have James, Kate and Siona working with us. And we get on mighty. They're part of the furniture at this stage like. We'd be lost without them. We'd get nothing built. They'd all be held up in planning. Nightmare stuff. But sure look it, it took a bit of time, but we're getting there. And the houses are looking better for it in fairness. And with this biodiversity crisis, sure we have to do something."

The view from the Biodiversity Advisor's side is similar. Tomasz, based in Enniskerry, "To be perfectly honest, I came into the job a bit green in all senses of the word. I didn't have a proper idea how the industry worked. What the day to day looked like. I was thinking only of conservation and sticking to the Biodiversity Directive. But over time, I've seen that it's well and good taking a directive but implementing that in the real world, is a totally different thing. We're learning. And I think we're improving. Some of the proposals that were made in the Forum on Biodiversity just don't work. And others, work much better than anticipated. Being on the ground we can see what's working and do more of that. And of course, help to ensure we're meeting the housing needs of the local community.

We all need to live somewhere. And most young people are sick of renting. So we want to buy a house but we don't want to destroy the environment either. It's nice to think that what we're doing here is helping to make houses that are less detrimental to nature."

And what about the Nature Auditors?

Both Paul and Tomasz declined to comment. The less said, the better.