Callum is the head of climate and sustainability risk consulting at one of the world's largest insurance brokers. His job is to quantify the impact the changing climate is having on the planet and the risk to people's assets, businesses and livelihoods. More than anything, he has to work out what comes next. His is a role that has significantly evolved over the last decade to keep up with the rapidly changing global climate events.

Throughout our fascinating, if unnerving, conversation, Callum reflected on a profession that has truly moved from the margins to the mainstream. For my benefit, we discussed the landscape sector's increasingly central role in managing risk at every scale, from an urban street to entire regions.

As landscape professionals, we consider sustainability in so many ways, for instance championing biodiversity enhancement, specifying peat-free compost, and scrutinising the carbon footprint of materials. But there's an invisible pollutant hiding in plain sight across every one of our projects, deriving from our specifications for products including tree protection and soils. Microplastics are everywhere in the landscape, and most of us are unaware of both the scale of the problem and our role in perpetuating it.

A conversation between Lynda Thompson, independent research consultant, LT Research and Romy Rawlings FLI FRSA at DeepGreen.

This edition is part of DeepGreen's 'Can't See the Wood for the Trees' newsletter series, exploring the often overlooked challenges facing our built environment through conversations with expert and passionate practitioners.

Emma is the founder of Leeds-based social enterprise, Playful Anywhere CIC, and is passionate about place-centred play. She works at the intersection of play, public space, and civic participation, creating conditions where communities, and particularly children and young people, can shape the places they live.

When it comes to delivering buildings and places, the construction industry rightly prides itself on attention to detail in design quality, sustainability, safety, and increasingly, co-design and user engagement. But one fundamental question is rarely posed:

Does the finished project meet its original aims?

Welcome to Can’t See the Wood for the Trees: a new blog and newsletter series from DeepGreen, dedicated to uncovering the hidden aspects of sustainability that often go unexamined.