 Go beyond carbon footprinting and learn how project, company and investment portfolio impacts have an effect on species diversity and ecosystem health. 🐛 🦉 🐠 🦏 🐼
Join us in August in the Netherlands for 2 days of learning about the importance of this topic and how to conduct a biodiversity footprint. I'm excited to be part of the training team for this pioneering field. Interested in joining? Find out more by following the link below! 🌱 https://pre-sustainability.com/solutions/training/biodiversity-footprinting-with-simapro/ |
Webinar: Understanding Biodiversity Metrics
Join us for a webinar on biodiversity metrics on June 5th 14.00 CET!
We will clarify the relationships between various biodiversity metrics, ranging from State Indicators such as the WWF Living Planet Index, the Mean Species Abundance Metric, to Footprinting Metrics used Life Cycle Assessment. State Indicator Metrics are typically used for policy development; Footprint Metrics used by Business and Financials. You will understand the basic principles of each metric, but also some surprising insights; for instance how Footprint Metrics can directly predict how much a company influences the Living Planet Index. This insight is based on a new mathematical analysis of such metrics by Axel Rossberg from Queen Mary University of London. However, we will present this with easy to understand examples, without math; no worries! The consequences of this finding are significant. Till now, the results of a corporate biodiversity footprints seemed to have no relationship with policy target settings. This new insight allows for policy development similar to what we have seen in climate change policies, where corporates present footprints in CO2 equivalents, identical to the Paris based policies. We will also explain this provides a new insight in the way unavoidable and residual biodiversity loss could be compensated. The webinar is based on the insights summarized in this whitepaper, presented here. Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_drpJCzivSjSTbVJJsDjDYg Nature 100 project (13.04.2023)We're excited to share the result of a unique collaboration between four leading biodiversity data providers, organized by the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, and the Nature Action 100 initiative, a global investor engagement program focused on driving greater corporate ambition and action to reduce nature and biodiversity loss. Together, with three other tool developers and the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, we have created a biodiversity footprint ranking of companies, industries and sectors. The ranking allows investors to identify the sectors with the highest impact on biodiversity and initiate engagement with these.
Our open-source method, the Biodiversity Footprint for Financial Institutions (BFFI), is one of first to quantify biodiversity impact. Working together with others in the field allows us to learn from each other and harmonize the approaches. Furthermore, the study has revealed some interesting findings. After the analyses of the four method developers were combined, the results showed that the food, beverage, and tobacco sector has the highest impact on biodiversity of all identified sectors, followed by the materials sector. The industry within the sectors with the highest potential negative impact on biodiversity is food products. To conduct the analysis, the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation used information of the four biodiversity impact measurement approaches, as well as a sector tool as a reference, on a list of 250 high-impact companies based on the MSCI World Index. These companies are responsible for 73% of the estimated biodiversity impact of the index. This unique collaboration is paving the way for more sustainable business practices and greater corporate accountability. We're proud to have played a part in this ground-breaking initiative and look forward to continuing our efforts to deliver high quality biodiversity footprinting data. Have a look at the briefing paper with the results of the project. Biodiversity Footprint Training at the Biodiversity COP15 in Montreal, Canada (13.12.2022)
Our biodiversity experts Marina Dumont and Mark Goedkoop organized a footprinting training at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal. The participants learned about the different steps of conducting a biodiversity footprint, the science behind impact assessment modelling and the data needed. We are excited to share our free online calculation tool BioScope. If you are interested in assessing your biodiversity impact with BioScope, you can read more about it in this article, or simply start straight away at bioscope.info. BioScope was developed by PRé Sustainability, Arcadis and CODE, commissioned by Platform BEE (Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Economy); a collaboration between IUCN NL and VNO-NCW financed by the Dutch ministry of economic affairs. The 2022 update of Bioscope was funded by the Partnership Biodiversity Accounting Financials and PRé Sustainability New PBAF standard (14.06.2022)Pssst: Keep an eye on this website to get notified when the newest PBAF Standard 2023 comes out!
The Partnership Biodiversity Accounting Financial (PBAF) publishes an update of the standard for impact assessment. PRé was involved since the start when PBAF was established in 2019 by founding partners ASN Bank (part of de Volksbank), ACTIAM, FMO, Robeco, Triodos Bank and Triple Jump. The foundation's objective is to contribute to a harmonised approach to assessing and measuring biodiversity impact by the financial sector through knowledge exchange and the development of the 'PBAF Standard'. We work as content experts in different working groups. Furthermore, we help the partners with our biodiversity onboarding training, and we develop short case studies. We are proud to assist in writing the standard together with the partners and the PBAF staff. The work of the partnership will allow for the protection and restoration of nature to proceed in a targeted manner. PBAF has grown in a relatively short period of time into an alliance of 36 financial institutions from 9 countries, with total financial assets of 8.2 Trillion US dollars. In 2021, the initiative was transformed into an independent foundation. PBAF is a sister initiative of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), which now has a membership of 264 financial institutions globally. For more information, visit the PBAF website. The BFFI applied in four practical case studies (29.07.2021)The Biodiversity Footprint Financial Institutions (BFFI) is a cutting-edge approach designed to help financial institutions measure their impact on biodiversity. The BFFI was put to the test in the report 'Exploring Biodiversity Assessment', which was produced in collaboration with seven top Dutch financial institutions, namely Achmea, APG, ASN Bank, ASR, ING, FMO and NWB.
Through the case studies, the participating institutions were able to gain invaluable insights into the methodology of the biodiversity impact assessment, including the kind of data needed for an accurate assessment of their footprint, as well as how to interpret and make use of the results. The work was initiated by the Dutch Enterprise Agency (RVO). In the execution, we worked together with CREM on this project to accelerate biodiversity assessment in the financial sector. The insights gained from this work proved verry valuable for financial institutions looking to measure their impact on biodiversity and make more informed investment decisions. The case studies allowed the participating financial institutions to gain insight over how the biodiversity impact assessment method works, what kind of data is needed for an accurate assessment of footprint and how the financial institutions can interpret and make use of the results. Read about the main conclusions in this article, of get access to the full report here. We also presented this work at the Climate COP 26 in Glasgow. 
BFFI listed by WWF as an approach to measure biodiversity impact of your investment portfolio (24.07.2021)
ESG is out, impact measurement is in. In this article from WWF, the authors explain how investors make the step from using ESG data to measuring impact. The report highlights seven valuable tools and services for financial institutions to enhance their comprehension and assessment of the environmental impacts and footprints of their portfolios and funds. The BFFI is one of them.
Take a look at the report, or watch the webinar. |
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