Three sets of guidance for measuring biodiversity covering direct operations, supply chains, and ecosystem conditions have been launched by the EU Commission-funded Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature (Align).
The guidance should complement the EU Commission’s efforts to support business and finance in standardising natural capital accounting practices, Align said in a statement.
“The project will accelerate the natural evolution of natural capital approaches and biodiversity measurement and valuation from guidance to standardisation,” Align said.
While Europe is the “primary focus”, the project aims to work alongside global initiatives to ensure that its impact extends worldwide, it said. Launched in 2021, the Align project is led by Capitals Coalition, Arcadis, ICF, and UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
DIRECT OPERATIONS
Align’s guidance on measuring biodiversity at site level include examples of how hypothetical firms in mining, metal processing, and energy can measure their impacts and dependencies over areas where they have direct operational control.
Companies exercising best practice should measure ecosystem condition alongside species extinction risk, Align said.
They should take measurements periodically starting from a baseline, using primary data based on field surveys, it said. Data collection approaches could include eDNA and bioacoustics sampling.
Align recommended a suite of sources that companies could use including:
- EDNA Resources-recommended companies offering eDNA services
- The World Database of Protected Areas, available through Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool
- Natural England’s Biodiversity Metric 4.0
SUPPLY CHAIN
The initiative’s guidance on measuring biodiversity at supply chain-level covered a set of recommendations for measuring impacts of the logistics system around the company.
Align included examples of three fictional cases: a clothing company, a chocolate manufacturer, and a technology firm.
“Together with the sectors covered in the Align site-level guidance, a relevant spread of industrial sectors is covered,” it said.
Each case study identified the corporation’s raw materials with the highest potential for impacts on biodiversity, which were determined to be cotton, cocoa, and minerals.
Best practice for measuring the impacts of these materials included using modelled data based on pressures, alongside primary data based on surveys of species or habitats, Align said.
For example, the clothing company would need to engage directly with producers to collect site-level data to inform best practice, as its supply chain lacks transparent traceability, it said.
ECOSYSTEM CONDITION
Align published a third document exploring how companies can use ecosystem measurements to understand their impacts on nature.
“Comprehensively assessing the impacts and dependencies of businesses on biodiversity requires considering both ecosystems and species,” it said.
The concept of ecosystem condition is emerging as a “key” element in measuring impacts and dependencies of business activities on nature.
Disclosure initiatives such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) require measuring ecosystem condition, Align said.
Align invited stakeholders in natural capital accounting to engage in biodiversity measurement, valuation, and disclosure through its Community of Practice group and its technical hub.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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