Business and Biodiversity Initiative

The goal of corporate biodiversity management is the systematic structuring of processes, products and projects around goods and services to achieve the sustainable development of businesses and society through the preservation of biological diversity.

Systematic biodiversity management offers businesses many approaches to take advantage of new chances along with opportunities to reduce corporate risk.

It achieves this by structuring systematic processes, products and projects that will ensure the long-term success of the company while preserving biodiversity. It consistently analyses the impact of business activities on biodiversity as well as its structural and social conditions in order to find strategic measures that lead to sustainable development for both business and society.

The core of such a corporate biodiversity management system is composed out of a variety of fields of action. Activities in these fields influence causes of biodiversity degradation (impact factors) as well as the factors linked to company success (business cases for biodiversity).

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” of and “endangered” 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.