Foreword

Dear Readers,

After the end of the German CBD Presidency, the member companies have now established new structures to function as a Business Initiative. A coordination office has been set up in Berlin and is in charge of the project management. The coordination office handles the operations of the Initiative in consultation with a members‘ elected Steering Committee, and implements the decisions taken.

Our member companies are ready to take on responsibility to contribute to the preservation of biological diversity and enter into a dialogue with policy and society. They see the Initiative as a platform for learning and dialogue and want to set an example for other companies through, inter alia, the communication of best practices. The content-related work will be approached in project partnerships with governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as research institutes. In addition, several companies are engaged in an international supply-chain management project with the GIZ.

In this Newsletter we will provide you with updates from the practical experience of our undefinedmember companies. In addition, you will find reports regarding the latest undefinedB&B topics worldwide as well as related undefinedevents.

We hope you enjoy the Newsletter,
The B&B Team

 

News from the Initiative

ForestFinance – New Member in the Initiative

The 'Biodiversity in Good Company' Initiative is pleased to announce that ForestFinance joined as a member in March. ForestFinance has years of experience in the development of ecologic forest investments.

Finding the ideal symbiosis between attractive investments and ecologically meaningful activities is the basis for all of the ForestFinance products and the main goal for each of our employees. Under these premises the company is able to offer a number of forest investments. The ForestFinance Group has been especially successful with investment products such as its TreeSavingsPlan (BaumSparVertrag) and the ForestSavingsPlan (WaldSparBuch). They are attractive to even investors with a small budget and provide lucrative returns from renewable wood resources.

In addition to profits from wood sales, investors can expect to see yields from the sale of CO2 certificates and seeds from the forests. ForestFinance was awarded in 2010 with the “FSC Global Partner Award” in the field of “Financial Services” and is the first German company to be internationally recognized with this prize.

Up to now, Forest Finance only offered reforestation projects in Panama and Vietnam. On the occasion of the United Nations International Year of Forests 2011 the company will start its first German forest project: The forest reserve “Wilde Bucke” is located in Hümmel in Rhineland-Palatinate and has a special and rare beech tree population as well as a in Germany particularly precious and rare variety of plants and animals. The project will secure that this ecosystem will be preserved in the future. It aims at establishing an exemplary concept for the preservation of species-rich beech tree forests and the existing biodiversity and rare landscape. In conjunction with its project partner B.A.U.M. e.V. (German Environmental Management Association) Forest Finance offers dedicated companies the opportunity to participate in the protection of these landscapes.

Further information about the forest project “Wilde Buche” can be found at www.forestfinance.de, www.wildebuche.de or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al1Ir5w9Eps.

Additional information with regard to ForestFinance can be found here.
For information regarding our other member companies, please click here.

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Members contribution

Faber-Castell exceeds targets for sustainable forestry

By joining the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN), Faber Castell had committed to increasing its share of FSC certified wood resources from then 80% to 90% by 2012. This target was already surpassed by mid 2010: 95% of all wood used within the Faber-Castell Group is certified according to the demanding criteria of the Forest Steardship Council (FSC). The remaining 5% are also sourced from controlled and sustainable forestry. Faber-Castell hence has the highest share of FSC certified wood in the stationary sector.

More than two decades ago, Faber-Castell started developing their own and unique wood supply programme in the south east of Brasil. These forests of 10,000 hectars have, however, not only been used for logging, but about 2,700 hectars are left as a natural habitat for animals and plants, some in danger of extinction. In 1999, the Brazilian forests have been certified with the FSC – Forest Management (FM) Label. In addition, all production sites for wooden pencils and all suppliers of the Faber-Castell Group are FSC – Chain of Custody (CoC) certified, so that the origin of the wood can be traced from the harvest of the trees to the packaging of the pencils.

Sustainable thinking and striving for constant improvement have shaped the company´s philosophy for generations. In connection with its 250th anniversary, Faber-Castell aims to increase the 95% share of FSC wood even further in the next years, and will shortly present a new ecological project in Latin America.

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Volkswagen given Sponsoring Award for NABU Cooperation

Volkswagen has been given the Fachverband Sponsoring Award for its cooperation with the Naturschutzbund Deutschland (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, NABU) in Hamburg. The association credited the long-standing partnership as a good example for a credible and sustainable cooperation in the environmental field.

The renowned International Sponsoring Award has been given to the best projects in four categories this year by an independent expert jury. Volkswagen won the category Public Sponsoring. The Fachverband Sponsoring represents the interests of the sponsoring industry in German speaking countries and awards prices to the best projects on an annual basis.

Volkswagen and NABU have been successfully cooperating for over ten years. Among the most important projects are trainings for saving fuel, forums with regard to environment and transport entitled “Mobile in Dialogue” as well as the initiative “Welcome Wolf” concerned with the protection of species. The latest project of the cooperation is the “Environmental Programme” developed in conjunction with the Volkswagen Leasing GmbH. This project connects the transition to efficient commercial vehicles with climate and nature conservation projects selected and overseen by NABU.

Further information about the cooperation please see www.volkswagen-nabu.de

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Saraya, Ricoh and Sumitomo Trust & Banking win "Green Reporting Price"

from left: Harumitsu MASHIKO, Ricoh / Syuji SARAYA, Saraya / Tsukasa KANAI, Sumitomo Trust & Banking

Three of our members – Saraya, Ricoh und Sumitomo Trust & Banking – have been awarded the prestigious “Green Reporting Price” for their achievements in environmental management in Tokyo on February 2, 2011. The event is organized by the media company “Toyo Kezai Inc.” and the “Green Reporting Forum”. Saraya won the “Toyo Keizais 115 Anniversary Price for Biodiversity”, Ricoh won the price for an outstanding environmental report and Sumitomo Trust & Banking for an exemplary sustainability report. The awards are given out every year in Japan since 1998. This year, 384 environmental and sustainability reports have been considered for the price.

Sarayas has been credited for its substantial and innovative reporting with regard to biodiversity. In addition, its international activities to preserve biodiversity, such as the implementation of a project to protect the forests in Borneo as well as the active participation in international conferences, have received a special mentioning.

Rico received the price for the best environmental report due to its clear, detailed and systematic presentation of its environmental management.

Sumintomo Trust & Banking was the first financial service provider to receive the award for the sustainability report, and was credited for its achievements in integrating environmental aspects into its core business.

Further information regarding the „Green Reporting Price” can be found at http://www.toyokeizai.net/corp/award/kankyo_e/index.php.

Information regarding the Ricoh Group Sustainablitiy Report 2010 can be found at http://www.ricoh.com/environment/report/pdf2010/all_a4.pdf

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HeidelbergCement conducting successful PPP Project in Tanzania

In particular seedlings have to be protected against the sunlight.

Deforestation and extensive land use pose major problems in the surroundings of the Tanzanian metropolis Dar es Salaam. For the majority of the population charcoal is the primary source of energy, however, although the forests in the surrounding areas are nearly destroyed already, reforestation and land restoration are not yet a priority.

In order to support sustainable land use in the areas surrounding the plants of its subsidiary Tanzania Portland Cement Company (TPCC), Heidelberg Cement entered into a development partnership in form of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ, German Development Cooperation).

The central aspect of the project is the development of a tree nursery in cooperation with external environmental organisations. The new nursery will create jobs for local people and supply plants for the restoration of the inoperative stone pit. In addition, the young trees shall be used to afforest destroyed forest areas in and around Dar es Salam. In the future, a new urban forest will supply firewood as well as serve as an area for recreation for the population. Furthermore, a natural habitat for endangered species and plants shall be established there. The urban forest can hence serve as prime example for sustainable land use.

In order to disseminate the knowledge about sustainable land use, Heidelberg Cement will work with the local provincial government and will conduct trainings with universities, schools and NGOs. A network including national and international institutions as well as other companies in this line of business will support the knowledge transfer and support further projects.

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B&B issues worldwide

Seizing biodiversity opportunities: taking measures

Tuesday 12 April about 25 people gathered in Frankfurt to discuss indicators to measure biodiversity in the corporate sector. The invitation only meeting was organised by the European Business and Biodiversity Campaign and hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. During the meeting, the different organisations informed the other participants about their efforts related to biodiversity indicators. The second goal was to discuss if a common key indicator set for the corporate sector would be feasible and useful. 

Although indicators for biodiversity do exist, they are not tailored to fit the corporate sector. In order for the corporate sector to identify the impacts on biodiversity and thus the related risks, and to seize opportunities, it is important to be able to measure biodiversity in a meaningful way.

The meeting focused on two topics, the first one being indicators for the drivers of biodiversity loss. Although it does not cover all aspects of biodiversity, measuring the five most important drivers of biodiversity is a relatively easy way for a company to measure its impact on biodiversity. The other topic the meeting focused on was the impact of raw material extraction on biodiversity. As these impacts are often very large, finding indicators to measure these impacts is crucial.

The interesting discussion afterwards did not yield a final set of indicators that can be used to measure biodiversity in the corporate sector. However valuable comments were made to develop the draft indicators. These will then be discussed during another meeting, probably to be held in late spring or early summer 2011.

More information: Marion Hammerl: marion.hammerl(at)bodensee-stiftung.org or Tel.: +49 (0) 7732 9995-45

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Biodiversity compensation in the supply chain: new publication by Dutch consultancy CREM

In its new publication the Dutch consultancy CREM reports on the BioCom project in which companies compensated their biodiversity impacts.  The companies not only developed plans to compensate for their own activities, but also for the impacts they caused in their supply chain.

Compensation is happening at a voluntary and legislative basis but in these cases the focus is on compensation of new activities and of the own impact. However, most of the biodiversity loss is happening through existing activities. For many companies, the impacts that are caused by the supply chain are much larger than their own impact is. A good example can be found in the agricultural food chain in which the impact of the production phase (especially land use) is much bigger than the impacts happening further downstream.

Project

The project ‘biodiversity compensation: towards concrete measures and guidelines for the corporate sector’ is based on voluntary compensation. In this project, existing and new activities are considered. The unique feature is that the whole supply chain is taken into account. The participating companies from the Netherlands cooperated with NGOs, governments and a knowledge institute.

During one and multi-day sessions compensation plans for the corporate sector have been developed with practical support from Steven de Bie (Wageningen University and Research) and CREM. The project was financed by the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (now Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment).

The publication can be downloaded at the CREM website: http://www.crem.nl/news/index/2011/biodiversiteitscompensatie_in_de_keten

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Publication “Investing in forest carbon projects” released

The Tropical Forest Foundation OroVerde and the Global Nature Fund have published materials in the much-discussed topic of forests and climate change mitigation. The publication is funded by the German Federal Environment Agency and the German Ministry for the Environment.

The guidelines help companies and private investors in the selection of forest carbon projects and show in a clear and easy to apply way how to minimise risks and maximise added values. They have been developed in collaboration with different stakeholders from companies, science and administration, ensuring the protection of biodiversity and safeguarding the interests of local communities.

Download: http://www.globalnature.org/waldklima

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WBCSD Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation released

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released 8 April the Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation (CEV), an innovative framework designed to enhance business understanding of the benefits and value of ecosystem services like fresh water and food.

The guide proposes five steps on how a company can implement an ecosystem valuation of its own. Best Practice examples from 14 companies help to understand the transfer from theory to practice.

This guide gives new information and insights to include benefits and value of ecosystem services in business planning and financial analysis. This will support improved business decision-making by creating more alignment between the financial, ecological and societal objectives of companies.

Further information and the Guide can be found here http://www.wbcsd.org/web/cev.htm

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How does PUMA value the bats?

In 2010 the TEEB (the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) study was published and estimated the economic costs for the loss of biodiversity at 4,5 trillion Euro per year. Recently scientists have calculated the economic value of bats as organic pest control for the US-American agriculture sector to be up to $US 53 billion. Even though these figures already indicate the immense impact of ecosystems and biodiversity on the world economy, businesses often lack the knowledge of the direct relationship their operations have with ecosystems. The introduction of environmental costs into corporate accounting and decision making is complicated and thus not yet widely applied.

Corporate environmental cost accounting does not only serve the green image of a company, but also has direct effects on its profitability. A monetary valuation can be used to compare different production technologies and their environmental impacts. New opportunities for the company can be identified as well. The US-forestry company Potlatch Corporation, for example, has decided to make parts of their forests accessible to the public for a fee for recreational purposes instead of simply cutting down the trees. Most examples of environmental valuation, however, are restricted to single business units or projects and are not applied to the whole company.

Nature as the basis of decision making

As one of the first major companies, the US chemical giant Dow Chemical announced in January 2011 its collaboration with the environmental NGO The Nature Conservancy. The aim of the collaboration is to apply scientific methods to highlight Dow’s dependencies and impacts on the environment. The results can then be used to improve the inclusion of environmental aspects into the decision making of the company. Dow will provide $US 10 million over the next five years for this research. The results are eagerly anticipated, especially from critics who fear that Dow’s efforts are simply an act of greenwashing.

The sporting goods manufacturer PUMA wants to “value” nature as well. The company plans to release the first-ever Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) account statement in the second quarter of 2011. All environmental costs, for example costs related to the CO2 Emissions of transportation, will be published in this statement. With the inclusion of environmental costs, decisions, such as outsourcing, can be scrutinized and it may be worthwhile for the company to produce locally instead. The most important part of PUMAs approach is that it will not only list consumption and emission statistics, but will also allot monetary value to these rising environmental impacts.

How much is nature worth to us?

The biggest challenge is to determine how to put a price tag on a single ecosystem or ecosystem services. How do you assess the indirect use of, for example, water purification or the value that derives from the mere existence of a creature or an ecosystem? No prices or costs that could form the basis of such measurement exist. Even if a price can be calculated, issues such as discounting of future values still need to be discussed. Without consistent and simplified valuation methods the comparability between companies will remain limited and a wider application of environmental profit and loss accounting is unlikely.

The EU Campaign and international B&B Initiative support businesses

The European Business & Biodiversity Campaign and the Business and Biodiversity Initiative ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ actively engages in the development of the valuation approaches and supports companies in integrating environmental impacts and costs into their strategies to work against the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity. The Biodiversity Check – developed by the Global Nature Fund, the consultancy firm, Dokeo, and other organisations – and the “Corporate Biodiversity Management Handbook” of the ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ Initiative will provide a first overview of the companies’ relation to biodiversity regarding opportunities, impacts and risks and highlight options for integrating biodiversity into (environmental) management systems.

Contact European Business & Biodiversity Campaign:

Stefan Hörmann, Project Manager, Global Nature Fund, Office Bonn, Tel.: +49 (0)228-1848694-11; Mobile: 0160-5321052; Email: hoermann(at)globalnature.org, www.business-biodiversity.eu

Fritz Lietsch, Tel. +49 (0)89 / 746611-11; Email: f.lietsch(at)forum-csr.net

Contact Business and Biodiversity Initiative ‚Biodiversity in Good Company‘:

Edgar Endrukaitis, Coordinator, GIZ, Tel.: 030-408190-267, E-Mail: edgar.endrukaitis(at)giz.de

Judith Winterstein, Project Manager, GIZ, Tel.: 030-408190-270, E-Mail: judith.winterstein(at)giz.de

http://www.business-and-biodiversity.de/en/handbook/welcome.html

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Events

Framing Resource Efficiency and Biodiversity – The Role of Partnerships between NGOs and Companies

23rd May the first workshop on partnerships between NGOs and Companies will find place in Brussels.

In early 2011 the European Commission launched “A resource-efficient Europe” as one of its seven 2020 flagship initiatives. An important element of resource efficiency is the efficient and sustainable use of biological resources. In the coming months the input from NGOs and companies will be crucial in the framing of this initiative. With the recent outcomes of the Convention on Biological Diversity COP 10 in Nagoya, the European Commission and the 27 EU Member States have underlined the involvement of companies in advancing the biodiversity agenda. The European Commission will shortly present its 2020 Biodiversity Communication, which foresees an increased mainstreaming of biodiversity in the business sector.
Within this policy context, establishing a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of companies and NGOs becomes eminent. This workshop will explore and extract lessons learned from passed and ongoing partnerships between NGOs and companies in the field of biodiversity and resource efficiency and thus lay the foundation and provide advice on future partnerships.

Organised by the European Business & Biodiversity Campaign and the Global Footprint Network

For further information and registration (until 13th May), please contact Stefan Mielke, +49 7732 999589, mielke(at)globalnature.org or http://www.business-biodiversity.eu/default.asp?Menue=25&Termin=112

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Green Week Conference 2011 Resource efficiency - Using less, living better

The 11th edition of Green Week, the biggest annual conference on European environment policy, will take place from 24 to 27 May 2011 in Brussels and around Europe. This year's theme is "Resource Efficiency - Using less, living better".
Over some 40 sessions, the conference will address the problem of resource depletion and scarcity, and the challenges and opportunities presented by constraints on resources. The conference will also showcase public and private strategies that are promoting a shift towards lower carbon use and a more efficient use of resources.

Green Week is open to the public and participation is free of charge. More information on the European Commission website: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/

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Publishers:

Business and Biodiversity Initiative 'Biodiversity in Good Company'

Editorial

Judith Winterstein, judith.winterstein(at)giz.de

If you have any comments, questions, articles or other event tips for the newsletter, please let us know. We would be happy to hear from you at +49-30 408190-270.