Submission by Digg & Co. Studio.
Being a good ancestor
Practice
1. Does the practice have a clearly stated purpose aligned with the planetary emergency? We are looking for a bold ambition here, and a practice culture which recognises the need for long-term thinking. For example, a strong mission, a theory of change, or a sustainability roadmap.
Looking wider, our goal as a design studio is to positively contribute to an ecosystem and create tangible gains on every level of nature. We work with the understanding that the richer our environment, the healthier and happier we are. This fusion of art and science allows us to make changes over many scales, focusing on long-term ecological enhancement and resilience for generations to come. Each day, we hope to return fading landscapes to health through the collaborations and relationships we make, from soil scientists, writers, artists, farmers, architects, sages, our diverse clients, and many more. Be it a garden, a farm, a street or a national park, we look to ask the question: What does a new natural future look like?
2. Does the practice have a clear succession plan, which passes on ownership and protects the values and legacy of those who built and contributed to the practice? For example is the practice an employee owned trust.
As we are a young practice, whose directors are in their 30s, we have not considered this yet. We have, however, recently begun planning employee ownership through options. This is not at a formal stage, however. Our endeavours over time to rationalise this are focused more on the preservation and enhancement of natural systems, so it may be that this stage of company planning reflects this mission statement rather than purely from an employee perspective. We may donate the company to the Earth at some point in time.
3. Does the practice share research and knowledge for the benefit of society and the wider world? For example, you regularly carry out post occupancy evaluation and share information with others.
- Walking farm tours
Studio collaborations – also with educational and research institutions like Exeter Uni and South West Water
Stakeholder engagement
Project assessment post-completion
Project
1. Does the practice advocate for long-term thinking at the outset of projects? Do you initiate projects with long-term thinking and challenge the client on design life? Also, can the practice demonstrate that this approach has worked – with a shorter or longer design life, or an innovative approach to financing or payback period?
At Digg & Co., long-term thinking is foundational to our practice. We initiate every project by considering its enduring impact on ecological systems, communities, and cultural landscapes. This approach involves challenging conventional notions of design life and engaging clients in discussions about adaptability, stewardship, and legacy.
Case Study: The Wash Landscape Partnership
Our involvement in the Wash Landscape Partnership exemplifies our commitment to long-term, regenerative design. This initiative encompasses an 11,123-hectare area along the North West Norfolk Coast, aiming to restore diverse habitats – from upland calcareous grasslands to estuarine and marine ecosystems – over an extended timeline.
In this project, we employed detailed ecological analyses and master planning to envision a landscape that evolves over decades. By integrating ecological, community, and economic perspectives, we crafted a comprehensive vision that prioritises both ecological integrity and socioeconomic benefits.
2. Do your projects take account of the future climate and the need for resilience? For example, do the projects demonstrate flexibility, design for adaptation, design for disassembly, non-deterministic solutions, or demountable structures.
Yes – resilience to future climate conditions is a central driver in our design methodology. We approach this not simply as mitigation, but as a creative prompt for new typologies, systems, and forms of inhabitation.
In our projects, climate resilience is embedded through non-deterministic design thinking: we don’t assume a single fixed future, but instead design in the capacity for change. This is evident in our design for adaptation – where spaces, materials, and systems are selected and arranged to accommodate shifting environmental conditions, social uses, and ecological priorities.
Designing with climate in mind also means embracing flexibility over fixity. In the Wash Landscape Partnership, for example, our strategic interventions were conceived as phased and adaptable, allowing wetlands, habitats, and human uses to evolve with rising sea levels, changing salinity, and dynamic land use patterns. This long-view approach turns uncertainty into opportunity.
3. Do the majority of your projects go beyond mitigating negatives and towards optimising positives? For example, are they meeting or exceeding the RIBA 2030 Challenge.
Yes – we see regenerative design not as an ambition but as a baseline. While we align with performance frameworks such as the RIBA 2030 Challenge, our work intentionally goes beyond mitigation to actively restore ecological systems, support social equity, and enrich place-based identity.
At Digg & Co., we begin by asking: What can this project give back? This question drives us to look beyond carbon metrics and towards strategies that deliver net-positive outcomes – ecologically, culturally, and economically.
Take our work on the Wash Landscape Partnership. This wasn’t about reducing impact – it was about restoring degraded habitats, reconnecting communities with land and sea, and designing land-use strategies that produce ecological surplus over time. This included nature-based solutions such as re-wetting peatlands and reconnecting hydrological systems to lock in carbon far beyond current operational benchmarks.
Co-evolving with nature
Practice
1. Does the practice use biophilia within the office or regularly host meetings and retreats in natural settings? For example do you have extensive planting within the office or rely on natural patterns and imagery for stress relief or quiet areas.
Biophilia is deeply embedded in our studio culture – not just as a design principle, but as a way of life. We consciously cultivate a rhythm of work and rest in our daily practice, recognising that time spent in nature fosters creativity, resilience, and well-being.
We’re fortunate to be based at Mill Barton Farm, where we’re immersed in a living landscape, surrounded by fields, trees, and animals. Our team regularly takes part in Farm Gym Days, which might involve moving the herd of Red Devon cows, tending to the vegetable patch, planting around the studio, laying hedgerows, or tree-planting across the farm. These hands-on, seasonal tasks ground us in the cycles of the land and reinforce our connection to place.
We also encourage each team member to take a “Session Day” whenever needed – a dedicated day outdoors, spent doing something they love, completely offline and restorative.
2. Can the practice share examples where it has considered nature in decision making? For example by having a nature proxy to encourage eco-centric decision making, using natural systems as inspiration for the company structure, recognising the seasonal nature of people’s capacity and workload or celebrating equinoxes and solstices together.
Our setting at Mill Barton Farm allows us to stay intimately connected to the rhythms of the land. This proximity shapes how we work: we observe and respect seasonal cycles, not only in ecology but in human energy and attention. We recognise that people, like landscapes, move through periods of intensity and rest – and we structure our workflow accordingly. We avoid forcing productivity in deep winter, and we embrace renewal and outward energy in spring and summer.
We also gather as a team to mark seasonal transitions – celebrating equinoxes and solstices with shared meals, outdoor rituals, or collaborative planting days. These moments root us in time and remind us that we’re part of a larger, living system.
We prioritise slow, reflective decision making over reactive pace, often asking, What would nature do here? before choosing a path forward.
3. Is the practice supporting nature locally and nationally? For example, does the practice support local gardens, gardeners, planting programmes, rewilding programmes or advocate for changes in legislation to protect nature.
On a local level, our studio also supports planting days, hedgerow restoration, and seasonal food growing on Mill Barton Farm, creating a daily culture of hands-on stewardship. Nationally, we are engaged in ongoing dialogues around land use policy, regenerative agriculture, and nature-positive planning, advocating for a future in which ecological health is seen as a foundational public good.
Project
1. Can the practice demonstrate projects which strive to match the performance of a mature ecosystem? As a minimum this would mean achieving biodiversity net gain.
Yes – our projects aim to go beyond biodiversity net gain, striving to emulate the resilience and complexity of mature ecosystems. At Stourhead Estate, we’ve developed a regenerative land-use vision restoring lost hydrology, enhancing soil health, and designing for long-term ecological succession. At Wendling Beck, we’re helping transform 220+ acres of former arable land into species-rich grassland using traditional haymaking and local wildflower seed, creating layered, self-sustaining habitats. At Harold’s Park Wildland, we’re working alongside Nattergal to support rewilding efforts through native species restoration, hydrological repair, and natural grazing cycles – allowing the land to recover its own ecological logic over time. These projects are not just about meeting ecological baselines, but about restoring function, fostering biodiversity, and designing with nature as the primary client.
2. Is the practice working on material stewardship? For example, evidence could be shown through repeated use of low carbon materials, extensive material libraries and research or publications supporting responsible use of materials and elimination of waste.
Ash Barn – our self-built studio completed in 2022 – embodies Digg & Co.’s approach to rigorous material stewardship. Working with OTF Construction and Devon Oak, we raised a locally sourced oak + Douglas-fir frame atop a suspended floor of reclaimed-rubble gabion baskets. Walls carry sheep-wool and wood-fibre insulation; cob, lime plaster, stone and earth finish the envelope – all reusable or biodegradable. A biodiverse green roof extends habitat across the farmyard.
Listed-Building Consent forced retention of the barn’s original pine trusses, doors and footprint; this conservation brief sharpened our reuse ethic while lowering cost. Guided by Living Building Challenge principles, every component was tracked for provenance, designed for disassembly and cleared of red-list toxins. Today, Ash Barn shelters Digg & Co. alongside swifts, moths and solitary bees, proving that regenerative material choices can nourish culture, economy and ecology in one elegant, low-carbon whole.
3. Do the majority of projects demonstrate the use of biologically-inspired approaches such as Bioregionalism, Biophilia, Biomimicry, Ecomimicry (also referred to as Ecosystems Thinking, Industrial Ecology or Industrial Symbiosis) or BioTRIZ?
Yes – our projects are deeply rooted in bioregionalism, designing in harmony with the ecological, cultural, and material character of place. We believe every site holds biological intelligence, and our role is to read it, respect it, and respond accordingly. Whether restoring ancient wetlands, reintroducing lost hydrology, or selecting local materials, our approach mirrors the logic of living systems – an ethos akin to ecomimicry.
Biophilia is embedded in both our studio culture and project delivery – from green roofs and habitat corridors to our own workspace at Ash Barn, which invites nature in at every level. Our masterplanning process often draws from ecosystem thinking, mapping flows of water, energy, species and soil, to regenerate whole landscapes, not isolated sites.
We don’t apply these frameworks as overlays – they shape our design logic from the ground up, helping us regenerate both land and life together.
Creating a just space for people
Practice
1. Does the practice have a progressive EDI policy and can you evidence many forms of diversity, which are welcomed and acknowledged, within the practice?
Yes – while we are a small team, equality, diversity, and inclusion are integral to our studio culture and practice. Our EDI approach is rooted in equity of voice, flexibility of working, and recognition of the whole person, not just their professional role. We acknowledge and embrace many forms of diversity: from neurodivergence and socio-economic background, to lived experiences and ways of thinking.
We prioritise kindness, openness and transparency, and provide space for everyone to contribute meaningfully, regardless of hierarchy. Our flexible working culture supports caregiving, mental health, and different life stages. We also engage with broader communities through educational outreach and collaborative projects, aiming to widen access to the regenerative design field.
We are currently in the process of formalising our EDI policy to reflect these lived values and to ensure they continue to guide us as we grow.
2. Does the practice operate a no overtime culture, meet the living wage consistently, and stipulate a fair salary ratio between staff of all levels?
Yes – Digg & Co. is committed to a healthy, fair and balanced working culture. We operate a no-overtime ethos; our studio structure is intentionally designed to support deep work during work hours, rather than celebrating burnout or overextension. We value rest, boundaries, and seasonal rhythms as essential to long-term creativity and resilience.
We pay at or above the Real Living Wage and ensure that all members of the team are compensated fairly for their time, skills and responsibilities. As a small and growing practice, we are transparent about our salary structure and are committed to maintaining a fair pay ratio across all levels of the studio.
We also provide space and time for personal development, non-project days, and “session days” – paid time spent outside doing something personally regenerative. We believe a just practice begins within, and our working culture reflects the regenerative principles we apply to land.
3. Does the practice support charities, community groups, social enterprises, action groups and others through pro-bono work, charitable giving or in-kind donations?
Yes. Digg & Co.offers free guidance to the Tree Council (Toby Diggens is on the board), The River Exe and Tributaries Association (RETA) Toby Diggens sits on the committee. Digg & Co. Annually donates money to RETA and to one chosen charity within the rewilding and nature space.
4. Does the practice publicly refuse to work with certain clients, suppliers or organisations on ethical grounds?
No – we have never had to declare this.
Project
1. Do the projects demonstrate deep engagement with local stakeholders and end users? For example, is there evidence that your project engagement goes beyond consultation towards co-design?
Yes – our work is grounded in long-term, place-based relationships, with a strong emphasis on co-design and land-based listening. We believe that regenerative design cannot happen without deep engagement with those who live on, care for, and are shaped by the land – including farmers, landowners, ecologists, communities, and non-human stakeholders.
Rather than one-off consultations, our projects often unfold through workshops, walks, field days, collaborative mapping and seasonal check-ins. At Stourhead Estate, we engaged with multiple generations of custodians and landworkers to shape a shared regenerative vision. At Wendling Beck, we’ve worked alongside local seed suppliers, graziers and conservationists to embed lived knowledge into the project.
Our role is often one of translation – holding space for complexity, conflict and care – and ensuring that designs emerge not from a single hand, but from collective, grounded intelligence. This is how we believe regeneration takes root.
2. Do your projects create connected and resilient places which positively contribute to their neighbourhoods and allow equality of access? For example, do your projects create economic opportunity, retain value locally and generate social value?
Yes – our projects aim to create resilient, connected places that contribute positively to their wider communities. We work with landowners, farmers and local partners to shape regenerative land-use strategies that are ecologically restorative and socially generative. Many of our projects create opportunities for community-supported agriculture, conservation volunteering, nature-based education, and local craft – supporting skills, livelihoods and access to nature.
At Puddington Moor, a degraded piece of land is being reimagined as a publicly accessible wetland and woodland landscape, supporting biodiversity, community wellbeing and environmental education. At Harold’s Park Wildland, we’re helping shape a regenerative model that enables public access, supports local food systems and invites diverse communities into long-term stewardship.
3. Do the majority of your projects promote equity in society, and consider all people, not only the building inhabitants? For example, do your projects show due regard for workers within the supply chain and take active steps to avoid modern slavery?
Yes. Whilst the practice does not have demonstrable evidence of this, we always promote the utilisation of people and their skills over automation. We also promote the use of local contractors in each project we are part of. As we are a landscape practice, our recommendations are based on the use of appropriate outdoor materials, and we advise clients on the use of local products from quarries and suppliers whose management and protocols are known and researched. Importantly, our specifications never suggest the use of any non-EU materials due to the lack of transparency over the original material destination or employment systems.