Oxbury, Britain’s first and only fintech 100% dedicated to farming, with a full UK banking licence and powerful AgTech proposition supporting agriculture’s critical transition to net zero, has published its second annual Natural Capital Report, underlining its commitment to help build a more sustainable future for British farming.

Launched in 2021, Oxbury’s mission is to help finance food production and farming and to support the sector’s drive towards a more productive and sustainable rural economy. It has rapidly gained traction with farming and food businesses across the UK’s £21 billion agriculture finance market, leveraging the bank’s unique combination of experience across finance, agriculture and technology.

As the UK’s only bank 100% dedicated to supporting British farming, Oxbury has built sustainability and the need to help farm businesses in the transition to a low-emissions nature-positive economy into its DNA.

Oxbury issued its inaugural Natural Capital report (covering 2022) last year having become an early adopter of the global nature-based financial reporting framework set out by the global Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

Oxbury remains the only UK bank to issue a Natural Capital report aligned to both the TNFD and TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) requirements.

The key quantifiable findings of this year’s report are:

  • Oxbury emissions (tCO2e) – 320.2 (2023) compared to 160.1 (2022)
  • Financed emissions (tCO2e) – 848,454 (2023) compared to 533,138 (2022)
  • Transition finance as % of loan book – 28% (2023) vs 22% (2022)
  • Nature restoration & carbon storage – Since 2019, 15 hectares ecosystems restored and 26,000 trees planted estimated to store more than 6,000 tons of carbon.

The bank’s Natural Capital report is breaking new ground in assessing and disclosing the nature-based impacts of the bank – including its own operations, its supply chains and customer activity financed by the bank.

This year’s report outlines a number of pilot studies undertaken by the bank to assess natural capital assets with its farm business customers, including an innovative project to create a comprehensive view of both on-farm emissions and carbon storage.

This collaborative research with customers enables farm businesses to better understand the impact of different farming practices on the natural environment and long-term farm productivity.

The findings from Oxbury’s research also help farm businesses to better plan for reducing emissions and increasing carbon stored as the sector transitions to a low-emissions economy.

Oxbury’s commitment to sustainability and the natural environment is unique in UK banking and extends to every aspect of its operations:

The bank has committed to be carbon neutral since inception of the company in 2018. Oxbury has offset all its own operational emissions and has committed to maintain its carbon neutral position as it grows. 

Oxbury also offsets an additional 10 tCO2e annually per employee – the estimated average annual carbon footprint for individuals in the UK – to offset their personal emissions.

Commenting on the publication, Nick Evans, Managing Director said: “From the very first day we started thinking about Oxbury, we’ve built sustainability and helping farmers in their transition to a low-emissions economy into our DNA – our Natural Capital report is testament to these efforts.

“With the bank’s strong technological abilities – driven by its proprietary Oxbury Earth technology platform – combined with our skills and knowledge in agriculture, land management and the natural environment, Oxbury is taking a leading role in developing the metrics and methodologies to integrate climate and nature considerations into credit models across both the financial and rural economy sectors.”

“Agriculture is responsible for around 10% of the UK’s territorial greenhouse gas emissions and an estimated 15% of agricultural output in the UK potentially being at risk in future due to nature-related physical risks[1] and we are seeing significant demand across farm business and investors to understand the climate and related natural environment risks of the sector in a more meaningful way.”