The Christopher Betts Practice (“Betts Ecology”) was founded in 1985 to provide high quality professional services to meet an increasing market demand in applied environmental science, especially environmental biology. The Practice stems from the Betts family business which was established in 1760 for the refining and recycling of high value industrial wastes and mineral ores. Betts Ecology thus offers an unusual blend of technical, academic and practical expertise in a range of environmental scientific disciplines, allied particularly to the biological conservation legislation and biodiversity policies of the 1980s and 1990s. Contracts undertaken cover a wide range of projects at local, national and international levels in the construction, extractive, agricultural, leisure, energy and general industrial sectors. The Practice is a member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. Scientific staff belong to appropriate professional institutes by whose codes of practice they abide.


What makes us different?

We understand that you, our clients, are proud to be in business and pursue excellence in building houses, erecting factories, constructing roads and runways, extracting raw materials from the earth, or whatever, for the benefit of shareholders, the economy on which we all depend and the society to which we belong. We are a firm with a commercial background rooted in almost 250 years of family business tradition. We are independent, objective scientists and, importantly and unusually for an ecological consultancy, not part of any environmental lobby, nature conservation charity or wildlife pressure group.

We understand the primacy of clients’ projects and we see ourselves as facilitators, representing you and working for you to ensure the speedy and efficient realisation of those projects. We will always strive to minimise negative environmental impacts but we will not be deluded by hyperbole, misinformation or propaganda. We will steer you through the mass of regulations and ensure proper compliance without making a fuss and with the minimum cost and delay.

A principal objective for us is to combine clients’ requirements with environmental protection. We develop practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges presented by human population growth and industrial development to deliver enhancement of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems.

Again, we are perhaps unusual in the environmental sector in that we believe capitalism is good. Certainly, we understand the need to minimise waste and use energy and resources efficiently and wisely: that is simply sound business and economic sense. However, in a “free” market (this is not synonymous with a “free-for-all” without restraint on profligacy), the motivation of making money, the investment of profits and the creation of wealth that benefit human welfare, achievement, discovery, creativity and collective wisdom do contribute to sustainability.

Postmodernist reductionism, usefully critical though it may sometimes be, has the unfortunate tendency of belittling human achievement and societal hierarchies that have matured to promote capitalism and intelligence. We, though, are proud to uphold science and free enterprise.