CSR Europe

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New Tool Launched to Assess the Effectiveness of Corporate Biodiversity Strategies

  • The new Corporate Biodiversity Assessment Tool developed by CSR Europe allows companies to  get a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of their approach to biodiversity in terms of governance; strategy; risk management; metrics, targets and reporting; stakeholder engagement.

  • The tool has been developed in the framework of the collaborative platform Biodiversity & Industry.  

  • Join the platform and prepare your company to meet the increasing expectations of policymakers and stakeholder.

CSR Europe’s newly launched Corporate Biodiversity Assessment Tool allows companies to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their biodiversity strategies and processes.

The assessment looks at five main categories:

  1. Governance

  2. Strategy

  3. Risk Management

  4. Metrics, Targets and Reporting

  5. Stakeholder Engagement

The tool was developed in the framework of the collaborative platform Biodiversity & Industry and applied via self-assessments, interviews, and further discussed in a practical workshop, to the participating companies.

The results show there is an urgent need to strengthen the connection between biodiversity and overall business and sustainability strategy.

Figure 1: Average score received by companies in the 5 categories tested (from the lowest, 0, to the highest, 4)

Although companies are at a different stage in their biodiversity journey, they face a number of common challenges:

  • There are no clear, defined metrics for biodiversity making it harder for the company to understand how to set the right KPIs and Targets

  • Alignment of company's policies, strategies, risk assessments and action plans for biodiversity

  • Stakeholder engagement is still lacking, especially when it comes to suppliers and value chain actors as a whole

What’s next?

After conducting the Biodiversity assessment, the real challenge lies in using the results to achieve impact. At the beginning of 2021, the Biodiversity & Industry Platform will co-develop a framework to better integrate biodiversity into corporate decision-making processes via a series of stakeholder dialogues.

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Companies are increasingly under scrutiny for the impact of their business operations have on biodiversity. Ahead of the G20, Commission President von der Leyen, remarked the need for “an ambitious global agreement at the next UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, in China, next year. This COP15 for nature must basically be like the COP21 was for climate and we need a Paris-style agreement to go with it. Our recent Biodiversity Strategy calls for a protection of at least 30% on both the EU's land and sea areas by 2030. But we need the same ambition at the global level if we are to protect humanity against this global threat”.

The collaborative platform Biodiversity & Industry prepares companies to meet the moment and the expectations of policymakers and stakeholders alike.

We will guide you to:

  • Enhance the capacity of your board to consider biodiversity when taking strategic decisions

  • Improve your internal processes

  • Align to the new requirements posed by EU Taxonomy and the Non-Financial Reporting Directive

  • Develop a common framework on biodiversity

  • Share your experience at strategic discussions on biodiversity

  • Strengthen your brand reputation and visibility

 

For more information:

Emma Van Zundert,

Project Manager

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