Headquartered in Fife, Akre was established by the Drysdale family in 2020 and has since constructed a state-of-the-art nursery – Akre Trees. The site, which has been farmed by the family for five generations, enables Akre to address both climate change and biodiversity loss through delivering scalable, high-integrity woodland creation projects.

The £3.3m lending package will refinance an existing debt and support ongoing working capital requirements, as well as short-term business expansion plans.

Akre is currently investing in improved irrigation systems and environmental control across its nursery operations in Fife, further optimising growing conditions to increase plant health and survival rates once trees are established in the landscape.

The organisation is also preparing to launch a direct retail offering, enabling individuals and organisations to participate in woodland creation and nature restoration. Alongside this, Akre is developing new technology that integrates artificial intelligence across the woodland creation value chain, helping to accelerate site assessment, planting design, monitoring and long-term forest management.

This new partnership between Triodos Bank and Akre is grounded in a joint mission to restore nature and accelerate its recovery. Triodos Bank, across its Group structure, has committed to financing EUR 500m to nature-based solutions and nature recovery by 2030.

Akre has designed and built the world’s first verified carbon-negative tree nursery, which features precise environmental control to reduce energy use and waste compared to conventional nurseries.

Renwick Drysdale, founder and managing director at Akre, said: “Nature restoration and carbon removal are moving rapidly from ambition to implementation, and that requires resilient infrastructure and a reliable supply chain.

“At Akre, we focus on growing healthy, resilient trees from seed, so that woodland creation projects deliver long-term climate and biodiversity outcomes.

“This partnership with Triodos Bank allows us to continue improving our growing systems, expand production capacity and invest in new technology that integrates data and artificial intelligence across the woodland creation process. Together, these innovations will help accelerate the scale and quality of nature recovery projects across Scotland.”

Simon Crichton, head of nature, food & resource team at Triodos Bank UK, added: “When we met Renwick and the team, and learned more about their work, we knew it was a project we wanted to get behind.

“Akre is a truly pioneering organisation and embodies a carbon-negative and biodiversity-positive strategy which is supported by data-driven methods, innovative technology and a true commitment to restoring nature across Scotland.”