Fields of Action: Sites and Facilities
- Impact factors on biological diversity
- Drivers of Business Cases
- Areas of Operation
- Tools
- Management Cycle Stages
The construction and use of office buildings, production halls or car parks change the existing habitat and affect biodiversity. This applies to both manufacturing and service industries. The area used by the fishing, farming and forest industries is included in the list of sites. Facilities can be greenhouse gas sinks or sources. For instance, if a wetland is to be used as a company site and is drained and dried, greenhouse gases will be emitted into the air. Similarly, clear cutting a section of forest destroys a natural CO2 sink. In the initial transformation of raw materials to useable construction materials, extracting rock from quarries or ploughing grasslands heavily impact plant and animal habitats.
Impact factors on biological diversity
Biodiversity includes the diversity of ecosystems and species as well as the genetic variation within the species. Biological diversity is the basis for a number of different services for people and the economy.
Habitat transformation
Space required for buildings
Habitat fragmentation
Climate change
Power demand and CO2 emissions of buildings
Ground storage of CO2
Invasive species (Neobiota)
Location of site may accommodate invasive species (for example, ragweed)
Overexploitation
Pollution
Release of climate gases from depletion of forests and drainage of wetlands
Dust
Building shadows
Drivers of Business Cases
More permanent measures are those that simultaneously make a direct contribution to a company’s success while contributing to the conservation of biological diversity. In such cases a “business case for sustainability” or, more specifically, a “business case for biodiversity” is referred to.
A business case for biodiversity can be achieved through targeted, voluntary biodiversity conservation measures that go beyond the legal requirements, and work to strengthen a company’s competitive advantage. This is often aided by intelligently and efficiently complying with existing government regulations, such as wastewater treatment, which has positive effects on biodiversity.
The success of a corporate biodiversity management is linked to changes in one or more success-related variables called business case drivers.
Costs
Need for new space due to degradation or other costs from lower productivity rates
Decreasing maintenance costs through new site development
Decreasing restoration costs and/or decreasing offset costs
Best Practice Examples: Axel Springer – Environmental ground care protects biodiversity and lowers maintenance costs
Axel Springer showed that economics and ecology are not mutually exclusive when they redesigned the company grounds at their printing facility in Ahrensburg. An award-winning renaturation programme lowered the maintenance costs while increasing the ecological value of the grounds.
Axel Springer AG
Sales and Price
Appreciation or retention of real estate value (for example, by avoidance of contaminated sites, etc.)
Risk mitigation
Risk of increasing operational costs (for example, due to higher energy prices)
Reputation and Brand Value
Reputation improvement by constructing buildings that preserve biodiversity
Innovation
Working environment can enhance employee creativity
Business models
Site development as business model (for example, “green roofs”)
Areas of Operation
Areas of operation in corporate structures organise the various fields of action in corporate biodiversity management. As is made clear through the cross-sectional nature of corporate biodiversity management systems, it is often possible and practical for departments to cooperate together.
Procurement
Approaches:
Building construction, purchase and management
Goals:
Cost reduction through reduced building maintenance
Production
Approaches:
Production site
Goals:
Reduction of remediation costs through avoidance of contaminated sites
Marketing
Approaches:
Use of buildings for representational purposes
Goals:
Better public relations through design of the company buildings and premises
Sales and Distribution
Approaches:
Storage facilities
Goals:
Reduction of energy-related storage costs
Research and Development (R&D)
Approaches:
Research buildings Outdoor research areas
Goals:
Avoidance of protests in outdoor research areas
Human Resources
Approaches:
Employee identification with location
Goals:
Increase employee motivation through design of buildings and premises Elimination of allergy causing alien species (for example, ragweed)
Tools
Corporate biodiversity management not only requires scientific and planned approaches, but also environmental management business methods.
For instance, the biological diversity of an area can be modelled with the help of regional surveys and field mapping. These evaluations can then become part a business’ decision-making and management processes.
Specific methods for corporate environmental management have not been readily available in the past. Furthermore, these tools can only be roughly assigned to phases of the management cycle, because some of them can be used in more than one of the phases. For example, “indicators and key ratios” are both an important part of determining the current state of biodiversity (for screening and success measurement) but are also the basis for planning future programmes.
The selection and usability of a tool depends on the function of the departments involved, the business case driver and the intended effect on the impact factors that, in turn, affect biodiversity.
In the following section the way a variety of tools can be applied to biodiversity will be specified.
Environmental impact assessment
In the following fields of action this tool can be used:
Additional information about Environmental impact assessment
Checklists
In the following fields of action this tool can be used:
Indicators and key ratios
In the following fields of action this tool can be used:
Management Cycle Stages
Using a systematic management “plan-do-check-act” cycle to implement a corporate biodiversity management process allows for proper business orientation, for example, as is used when part of the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) or ISO 14000.
Finding the business-specific relationship between company and biodiversity is, however, made more difficult by the complexity and extent of biodiversity (ecosystem, species, and genetic pool). The criteria “rareness” and “endangerment” of species and habitats act as a point of orientation. Aids in determining such threats to biodiversity such as the “Red List”, the European Union’s Habitats Directive along with the EU’s Birds Directive and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Scientific expertise is often required in cases where specific plans are made. This is an area where local environment and nature conservation groups can provide businesses with technical know-how, representing an opportunity to deepen the cooperation with regional NGOs.
Screen - S
The following tools are available during this phase:
Check - C
The following tools are available during this phase:
