For Organisations

22/08/2025/in CTA_How-LENs-Works /by Robbie Dawson

For organisations

Our funders come from many sectors including food and agriculture, utilities, water, insurance and local governments – collaborating on diverse challenges and outcomes.

Diageo, Nestlé, and PepsiCo are among the global brands investing in LENs. Utility companies include Affinity Water, Anglian Water, SSEN and Yorkshire Water. In addition, local councils and public bodies fund farmers and support our operations – for example, Perth & Kinross Council, The Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland, West Northamptonshire Council, and York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.

See our full list of partners here.

Co-funding regenerative agriculture

With LENs, organisations can co-fund regenerative agriculture to mitigate environmental risks with outcomes they can report.

Co-funding regenerative agriculture

With LENs, organisations can co-fund regenerative agriculture to mitigate environmental risks with outcomes they can report. Co-funding reduces costs and maximises outcomes.

Why does co-funding matter?

The more co-funding farms receive, the more environmental benefits will be accrued, which is good for farmers, funders and the landscape. Co-funding provides a genuine value for money proposition, as it means that multiple measures can be ‘stacked’ on the same farms or fields. This reduces the cost per hectare and generates greater impact with the same resources.

What funders say

LENs offers an efficient way to pay farmers to manage their land in ways that protect the water environment. We rely on these catchments for water that we put into supply. Working with others, we are able to select a broad range of measures that benefit soil, water and biodiversity that protects the environment.

Chris GerrardAnglian Water

From our perspective, LENs EoE offers an effective, multi buyer approach to improving ecosystem services across the wider landscape. By pooling funding, we are able to co-fund exciting new approaches to regenerative agriculture and other nature-based solutions to drive long term changes to land management practices. The monitoring, reporting and verification process captures the benefits and impacts of our funding on water, biodiversity, carbon and other natural capital and allows the catchment team to show our company and regulators, the positive impacts our funding is having across the wider landscape and how it contributes to us meeting our regulatory goals within the Water Industry National Environment Programme.

Danny CoffeyAffinity Water

We acknowledge the importance of doing what we can to support farmers to transition towards regenerative agriculture. We work with LENs to mitigate our impact on the environment and build more resilience to our sourcing, helping to create a more regenerative food system. We work closely and collaboratively with the LENs team to achieve success.

Cécile DoinelHead of Regenerative Agriculture Purina Europe, a LENs Strategic Partner

LENs has developed over the last few years in partnership with a wide range of expert partners to become a robust model to unlock the efficient scaling of regenerative agriculture and landscape transformation. I hope this openness and transparency will ensure it continues to evolve, to increase impact, efficiency and scaling potential.

Andy GriffithsGlobal Head of Transformational Partnerships, Diageo

Frequently asked questions

What does LENs fund?

LENs funds a range of regenerative agriculture practices. The most popular in 2024 were: reduced/no tillage, to minimise soil disturbance; reduced use of synthetic inputs, including fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides; planting and managing hedgerows; and keeping soils covered/living roots in the soil.

It also funds innovations – practices that are not pre-defined, such as trials relevant to a farm business or capital and in-field investments. Last year, these included direct drills, low disturbance subsoilers and yield monitoring on combine.

Our model is designed to pay farmers for specific interventions and practices rather than purely for end results. This approach ensures that the burden of delivery does not rest solely on farmers and that risk is shared between all parties. In 2025, we expanded our offering to introduce performance-based payments based on achieving the two higher levels of our Regen Pathway. Performance is determined by the number and extent of regenerative farming principles adopted on farm. We offer payment by practice for those starting out, and payment for performance for those further along in their Regen journey. This allows us to reward farmers for their holistic adoption of principles and meet them where they are at.

LENs Regen Ag Pathway

We introduced the LENs Regen Pathway before the SAI Platform launched its framework, and have ensured it not only aligns but exceeds the minimum thresholds.

Does LENs offer carbon credits?

No. LENs is not a carbon or nature credit system. We don’t report tradable outcome units or sell the outcomes from implemented practices as credits. Under carbon credit schemes, funding parties cannot mutually benefit from each other’s investments on the same farms (outcomes cannot be co-claimed).

What metrics does LENs report?

Soil Carbon Stocks
Soil bulk density
% Arable crop land managed with minimum tillage
Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) per tonne of crop
Area of semi-natural vegetation coverage and natural habitat area as a proportion of total farm area
Reduction in total pesticide use
Key species indicator (species count)
Emissions reductions
Above and soil carbon sequestration
Farm business profile (farm size, ownership, gender)
Practice adoption by farm businesses
LENs measures and hectares

How is LENs MRV aligned with best practice?

To maintain integrity, LENs aligns with relevant existing and emerging standards. These standards provide rules and requirements around how outcomes are accounted for and reported.

These frameworks include the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Guidance (LSRG) and the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) Forest Land and Agriculture Guidance (FLAG). LSRG and FLAG are particularly relevant for informing how LENs measures carbon reductions and removals and how these outcomes are then allocated to various demand-side parties.

The LENs MRV Protocol is reviewed on an annual basis to account for evolutions and new frameworks and standards.

Get in touch

If you’re not already in touch with our supply aggregators and want to find out more about LENs, please email the team at lens@the-lens.co or use the contact form here.

Find out more about LENs

Our Partners

Meet our Central Team, who are developing LENs in partnership with a range of organisations in the UK and Europe.

01/07/2025

LENs at Groundswell

05/06/2025

Delivering significant progress in landscape resilience

LENs Impact Report reveals proven outcomes from landscape regeneration

29/05/2025

Webinar: Regenerating Landscapes

How LENs is driving collaboration for resilience and impact.

For Farmers

01/05/2025/in CTA_How-LENs-Works, Uncategorized /by Robbie Dawson

For farmers

LENs (Landscape Enterprise Networks) brings together businesses, public bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmers and land managers, to finance and implement initiatives to improve the health and resilience of landscapes they all rely on. It’s been going since 2021 and is active in six regions: East of England, Yorkshire, Leven (Scotland), Western Hungary, Northern Italy and Western Poland.

LENs works on an annual ‘trade cycle’, identifying measures at the start of the year that will be implemented during the following harvest. LENs has facilitated more than EUR 24m of funding direct to farmers and land enterprises. The funding supports farmers to introduce or extend regenerative farming measures that tackle common land management needs, such as: mitigating flood risk; improving soil health; reducing carbon emissions; increasing biodiversity; and improving water quality.

How could you benefit?

LENs supports farmers at all stages of regenerative agriculture. If you’re keen to take the first steps towards a more regenerative agricultural system, LENs funding could get you started. And if you’re well advanced in your approach to regenerative agriculture, LENs can support your ambitions and enable you to share your learnings with other farmers.

Case Study

Philip Raley has been a farmer for 37 years and has a tenanted farm near York. He was one of the first Yorkshire farmers to be involved in LENs and saw it as a chance to ‘dip his toe in’ to regenerative agriculture. LENs funding has enabled him to introduce: cover crops, reduced fertiliser, integrated organic manure, minimal cultivation techniques, bio-stimulants to manage plant health; and biological nitrogen fixation.

His view of LENs is that: “right from the start, it appeared to be more farmer-led than any other funding initiative I’d come across – I bid for what we want to introduce rather than having a prescribed list. It’s more interesting than ticking a box and filling in a form. Farmers need to be interested to be motivated, and LENs involves us in deciding what’s best for the individual farm.”

Read the full interview here.

How does it work?

There are four steps for farmers:

Submit an application
Get matched with funding and sign contracts
Implement your measures and receive funding
Annual monitoring visits on farm to check on progress

Case Study

Andy Falkingham has been farming his whole life. In the 2024 LENs trade, he received funding from Diageo, Nestlé and PepsiCo for a variety of practices including cover crops, planting wild bird seed mixes, catch crops, subsoiling, companion cropping and two innovation trials – establishing cover crops using a drone, and yield monitoring on combine.

He says: “LENs offers funding that wasn’t available under the Sustainable Farming Incentive for innovations. Trying out new things comes with a big financial risk that most farmers can’t afford. LENs means that we can experiment with a new machine or method that just wouldn’t be a viable risk otherwise.”

Read our interview with Andy here.

Frequently asked questions

What does LENs fund?

Innovation funding can be used for practices which are not pre-defined, such as trials relevant to a farm business or capital and in-field investments, which last year included direct drills, low disturbance subsoilers and yield monitoring on combine.

In 2024, farmers received between £150-300 per hectare on average for measures implemented.

Am I eligible?

You need to have an existing relationship or be willing to establish a relationship with one of the companies who engage with our network of farmers within each region*. You’ll need to be able to implement actions that are of interest to funders, and that result in the outcomes they are looking for (such as GHG emission reductions, improved water quality or natural flood management).

Are there any eligibility restrictions based on size of farm holding?

No, currently there is no minimum or maximum size.

How do I apply?

If you already work with one of the companies who manage our network of farmers in each region, you can speak to them and apply*. If not, then please use the contact form to get in touch.

Will I be audited?

Yes, you will be visited by a third-party provider once a year to assess the impact of the changes you are making on the farm. The results of this assessment will be shared with you and at an aggregated level with funders.

What results will I get about my farm?

The sustainability results provided in your Farm Report will include things like:

Soil organic matter content
Nitrogen use efficiency
Key biodiversity species score
The extent to which the farm is practising regenerative land use and sustainable farming
The amount of soil carbon sequestration from the current cropping year compared with previous year
A breakdown of the farm practices that emit the most greenhouse gases

You can use these results to compare yourself to other farms in the region, help make business decisions and use this data to apply for additional schemes and funding.

How and when will I be paid?

Typically, after submitting evidence of your investment/practice, you will receive a payment. The timing depends on the details of your contracts, but is around 20 days. Each set of payment evidence is verified by your local LENs Operator and the relevant Funders, but may also be audited by LENs.

The evidence required for each measure varies, and is set out in both the Technical Guidance for each Trade year, and clearly stated in your contracts too.

Who provides the funding?

The range of funders is determined by a region’s key crops and supply chains. Global food and drink companies are the main funders, including Diageo, Cereal Partners UK, Nestlé Purina, and PepsiCo. We also receive increasing investment from non-supply chain funders including water companies and local councils, who are interested in reducing the vulnerability of landscapes and their costs of operation.

How does it fit with state support?

LENs sets out to complement whatever government support there is to farming in your region. Accessing LENs funding does not prevent you from receiving public funding, but you cannot be paid twice to deliver the same thing.

*Supply Aggregators currently active in the East of England are Frontier Agriculture, Openfield Agriculture Ltd, Cetefra UK, Chilton Grain Ltd, Charles Jackson & Co. In Yorkshire, Openfield and Frontier Agriculture are active. In Leven (Scotland) they are Frontier Agriculture and GrainCo.

Get in touch

If you’re not already in touch with our supply aggregators and want to find out more about LENs, please email the team at lens@3keel.com or use the contact form here.