11 April 2011 | Tierney Smith
Biodiversity, Europe

 

Businesses are being called upon to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services including fresh water, food and fibre, using a new tool to measure their impacts.

The “Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation” (CEV), launched today by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), looks to offer practical advice for meeting recommendations in the high-profile, 2010 Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEBB) report, initiated by the G8+5 environment ministers.

The guide takes a business through a screening process; with questions covering what the guide covers, and helping a company to ascertain if they need the process. It then outlines a 5-stage process and 12 set principles for businesses, allowing them to work through in order to undertake their own CEV.

It will help businesses account for the full value of ecosystem inputs and impacts, including the costs associated with ecosystem loss. Through deforestation alone, the world loses ecosystem services worth between $2 trillion and $4.5 trillion each year. This new guide could create an alignment between a company’s financial, ecological and societal objectives.

Björn Stigson, President of the WBCSD said: “Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are continuing to escalate, thereby putting business at risk, but if managed properly can be transformed into new opportunities. I encourage all businesses, large and small, to use this guide and integrate ecosystem values in their decision making.”

The CEV can be applied to any aspect of a business; including products, services and projects.

The guide responds to attitude changes that came about as part of TEBB and the 2010 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreement, signed in Nagoya, Japan.

The agreement urged countries to adapt their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans by 2012 to support implementation of the CBD 2020 biodiversity targets.

In December 2010, the UN also declared 2011 to 2020 as the Decade of Biodiversity, which put further pressure on businesses to measure and report their actions to conserve as well as sustainably use ecosystems and biodiversity.

Jon Williams, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) partner said: “It’s not just consumer, or reputational pressure on businesses to get to grips with their full environmental impact, this is a reality that international businesses have to face up to right now to secure resources. It’s not easy, but it’s something businesses are going to have to face up to because clients, shareholders and lenders are beginning to link the risks associated with ecosystem services to their decision making.”

The CEV was developed by the WBCSD in partnership with the Environmental Resources Management (ERM), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and World Resources Institute (WRI) and has been tested by 14 companies including Eskom, GHD and Hitachi (Chemical).

 

More Information:

The Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation

Image: Andrea 44 | flickr

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