Wealthy heirs are pushing British family offices into nature investing. Here are three to know

The world’s high-net-worth individuals now control nearly $60 trillion. Some of that vast fortune is held in family offices. Many younger heirs are increasingly steering these offices toward impact, channeling capital into projects that address climate, biodiversity, and social challenges – and the UK is no exception.

Nature investing on the rise

Some 55% of UK family offices already invest in natural capital strategies, according to research from Foresight Group and Campden Wealth. Almost 60% say they are likely to increase allocations over the next one to three years.

The survey, which covers 51 of the UK’s more than 250 single family offices, reveals that the push to invest in natural capital largely comes from within the family itself, many of which are now managed by younger heirs.

In 76% of British family offices, a family member – rather than a chief investment officer – was the one leading discussions around nature-based investing.

However, some barriers to entry remain for investing in natural capital, the survey found, including valuation uncertainty, the lack of track record for this relatively nascent area of investment, and regulatory risk.

Why are family offices backing nature?

Financial returns remain a key motivation, cited by 27% of respondents, alongside climate risk mitigation (24%) and portfolio diversification (20%). Regenerative agriculture is the most popular natural capital asset, followed by afforestation.

“Family offices are uniquely long-term investors, often thinking in terms of future generations,” said Richard Kelly, managing director at Foresight Group. “When you take that kind of time horizon seriously, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the twin emergencies of climate change and biodiversity loss – and investing in natural capital is one of the most direct and impactful ways to address both.”

While information on the dealflows of family offices can be scarce, we've done some digging to find three heirs in the UK that are used their parents' fortunes to invest in impact.

Diane Isenberg – Ceniarth

Ceniarth is a London-based single family office founded in 2013 by Diane Isenberg, an American national whose wealth derives from her family’s stake in Nabors Industries, the oilfield services group formerly run by her father, Eugene Isenberg.

Managing roughly $1bn across her personal assets and the Isenberg family endowment, Ceniarth is known for an explicitly impact-first investment strategy, prioritising social and environmental solutions in the global south.

Ceniarth’s portfolio includes Kenya-based Kheyti, which develops affordable, climate-resilient greenhouse technology for smallholder farmers; Ghana-based Farmerline, which uses digital platforms to improve farm productivity, traceability and incomes for small-scale producers; and India-based iProcure, which strengthens agricultural supply chains by connecting farmers to inputs, credit and markets.

Hugh Grosvenor – Grosvenor Group

Grosvenor is a London-based family investment group controlled by Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminster, who inherited the business and family estates in 2016 following the death of his father, Gerald Grosvenor.

Managing more than £20bn of assets through Grosvenor Group, the family office has moved beyond its core urban property portfolio to make natural capital a defined investment theme.

Grosvenor’s nature investments include large-scale regenerative farming programmes on its English estates and commercial forestry and afforestation projects in the UK and continental Europe. It’s also got a sizeable portfolio of startups investments in the space, including two US-based companies: Vestaron, which develops bioinsecticides from peptides to replace synthetic pesticides and Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, which captures excess nutrients from wastewater to create sustainable fertilisers.

Becky Holmes – Helvellyn Foundation

Becky Holmes is heiress to an estimated £630m family fortune, derived from her father Bill Holmes, founder of transport software and technology company Radius.

Instead of channelling the funds into a family office, Becky uses that inheritance to co-run The Helvellyn Foundation with her sister Lauren, a grant-making body funded entirely by their father’s wealth that focuses on biodiversity and conservation causes such as the African Wildlife Foundation, Rewilding Britain and Wildlife and Countryside Link. Becky also works full-time at Langland Conservation and sits on the advisory board of the Environmental Funders Network.