Steve Elderkin
Director of Environmental Sustainability at National Highways; co-founder of Rebuilding Nature; environmental policy expert focused on net-zero infrastructure and nature restoration.
1
APPEARANCES
1
PODCASTS
Jun 11, 2026
Niki RoachHOST
Tell me about the difference between assets and infrastructure, and I suppose whether nature really is critical infrastructure.
Steve ElderkinGUEST
I think a key part of the difference is to think about infrastructure as a system rather than individual elements.
Steve ElderkinGUEST
For our road network, clearly the overall road network provides some essential services to the UK economy.
Steve ElderkinGUEST
It's how people get together, it's how people get to work, it's how goods get to market.
Steve ElderkinGUEST
And keeping that working as a system is something that a national infrastructure delivery body like National Highways occupy themselves with.
Steve ElderkinGUEST
For nature, similarly, what we want is to have a national ecological network that is working as a system to provide the essential services that nature provides.
Steve ElderkinGUEST
And so the sort of parallel is, you know, a lamppost is absolutely an asset, and we have it on our inventory at National Highways, but we wouldn't refer to that lamppost as infrastructure.