Toolkit Measures Nature-Related Risks

by | Apr 18, 2013

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The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has released Eco4Biz – a toolkit aimed at businesses looking to assess, measure and value the natural resources they use.

The toolkit has been released in report form and is titled Eco4Biz – Ecosystem services and biodiversity tools to support business decision-making. WBCSD says that the report is a “one-stop resource kit” to help environmental managers and companies navigate and choose from a range of available tools to better understand how they rely on nature, leading to more informed and better sustainability decisions.

Eco4Biz features a decision tree (pictured), which helps cluster tools around the scale of assessment that an organization may need and the type of outputs the organization would prefer. Tools are identified as primarily focusing on either ecosystem services, such as provisioning, regulating and cultural services, or biodiversity. The toolkit will be updated on a regular basis to keep pace with developments as more companies proactively measure, manage and mitigate their impact and dependence on nature, WBCSD says.

The toolkit was developed collaboratively, in partnership with both WBCSD member and non-member companies, NGOs, academic institutes and tool developers.

In April, WBSCD released a report calling for companies to develop and implement a more holistic watershed approach, which takes into consideration upstream and downstream interactions, direct and indirect impacts, and the needs of the environment.

For many businesses, this approach is a more cost-effective method to mitigate water risks and provides significant benefits and opportunities through new revenue prospects, reputation enhancement, improved compliance and cost-savings, Sharing Water: Engaging Business says.

In 2007, WBSCD launched its free Global Water Tool, which companies can use to map their water use and assess risks relative to their global operations and supply chains.

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