Hello,

We’re Lorna Davis and Alex Stephenson, innovators and creators of the SuDSPlanter. 

When we set out to create SuDSPlanter, our aim was to produce an environmentally sound flood mitigation device which would improve home owners’ lives through urban greening and flood defence.

We’re proud to have achieved all that, and more: yes, SuDSPlanter is ideal for individual homes, but it also has uses in the wider commercial and housing development fields, the water industry and as a compelling educational tool, with direct relevance to the National Curriculum.

We now have a manufacturing team producing the planters, and clients ranging from individual householders to schools and community projects.  We’ve recently introduced our first plastic version, made from 100% recycled materials, and have other developments and technical additions in the pipeline too.

About Lorna

Having grown-up on a hill farm in the heart of Wales, my interest in nature and its processes developed at an early age.

I’m a qualified landscape architect and surface water management specialist, with experience in brown field regeneration, flood defence, marine and land based habitat creation; and acted as lead landscape architect and design advisor for the Dwr Cymru, Welsh Water (DCWW) ‘RainScape Strategy’: an initiative which reduces the company’s environmental impact and improves water quality to meet WFD targets within England and Wales.

My RHS bronze-medal-winning ‘RainScape’ garden demonstrated techniques the public can use to enhance their natural environment whilst reducing the volume of surface water entering combined sewers… so creating the SuDSPlanter was an obvious ‘next-step’ for me.

I love getting involved in:

• Surface water catchment risk and value analysis for water quality and flood defence

• SuDS; from conceptual analysis through to design, engagement and delivery

• Stakeholder engagement, public consultation and educational support

• Landscape design and implementation, LVIA and brownfield regeneration

• Green engineering; catchment analysis, design & delivery of soft landscape solutions

“Passionate about the value of water in our natural and man-made environments and its importance to the survival of our planet and its people”

About Alex

“After 40 years of storm-water management, working in the drainage, water, wastewater and construction industries, I'm very aware of the issues we face on a local, national and global level”

I've spent 19 of my 40 years in water management leading a team of 15 engineers who designed drainage and sewer layouts for a huge number of developers including all the major housebuilders.  After that, my next 17 years were with a market leading supplier of surface water and wastewater solutions… so now I really am practicing what I have preached!

I am passionate about sustainable water management, and proud to have chaired British Water’s SuWM (Sustainable Water Management) Focus Group for many years, and now chair their Technical Forum. Water management is an ever-changing industry, so I keep myself abreast of current issues and the latest thinking by attending all the relevant steering groups, workshops, conferences and trade organisations I can.  I have chaired and presented at many water, wastewater and SuDS-related events, including All Party Parliamentary Group meetings in Westminster.

But I firmly believe it’s not just about talking, although obviously I do quite a lot of it! 

We need to take action… and every one of us can make a difference in our own way... which is where SuDSPlanter fits into my thinking and my life.