Biodiversity - Accounting for Nature

What is natural capital?

'Natural capital' has its origins in the concept of capital as a stock that can give rise to goods and/or services. In the case of natural capital, the stock is natural resources or ecosystems such as forests, water, grassland or air, while the goods and services (known as ‘ecosystem services’) that flow from the stock include raw materials for production and consumption (fuel or food, for example), the absorption of wastes from production and consumption, and the fundamental life-supporting services provided by nature.

What is natural capital accounting? 

The Biodiversity Handbook for Business

Business in the Community Ireland is a movement for sustainable change in business. Its purpose is to inspire and enable businesses to bring about a sustainable, low carbon economy and a more inclusive society where everyone thrives. Download its handbook to read the business case for biodiversity, case studies and access practical tips, key contacts and resources for biodiversity action.

The Business for Biodiversity Platform

Funded by the Irish Government, this not-for-profit initiative encourages and incentivises Irish businesses to assess their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity, with a view to mitigating and availing of associated risks and opportunities respectively.

All-Ireland Pollinator Plan

The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) is a framework bringing together different sectors across the island of Ireland to create a landscape where pollinators can survive and thrive. Implemented by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, it provides information and free resources to help, whether you have a business, a farm, a community group, a garden, or a window box.

To date, over 280 businesses in Ireland have signed up to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) and have committed to at least one pollinator-friendly action within the first year of signing up, and plan to carry out two additional actions within the following five years.

Find out more in the FAQs for Business section.

ENCORE

ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) is a tool to help users better understand and visualise the impact of environmental change on the economy. Developed by the Natural Capital Finance Alliance in partnership with UNEP-WCMC and financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the MAVA Foundation, the tool focuses on the goods and services that nature provides to enable economic production. It guides users in understanding how businesses across all sectors of the economy potentially depend and impact on nature, and how these potential dependencies and impacts might represent a business risk.

The ENCORE tool allows users to input basic information about their business sector and activities. The tool then downloads a list of relevant impacts and dependencies.

WWF – Biodiversity Risk Filter

The WWF’s Risk Filter tools - the Water Risk Filter and Biodiversity Risk Filter - enable companies and investors to assess and respond to nature-related risks to strengthen resilience. The WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter is designed to be used as a corporate and portfolio-level screening tool to identify biodiversity risks and prioritise corporate action on biodiversity. It covers broad aspects of biodiversity (e.g., freshwater, marine, forest, grasslands, wetlands) and allows businesses to:

• Understand their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity
• Map out physical biodiversity risks
• Assess biodiversity risks across operations, value chain and investments.

Biodiversity Maps Ireland

Biodiversity Maps, from the National Biodiversity Data Centre, provide an overview of the state of knowledge on the distribution of  Ireland's biodiversity.

According to Business in the Community Ireland, there are multiple ways in which businesses can use Biodiversity Maps, such as drawing a polyglot over a selected area e.g., business site, and then downloading a report of plant and animal species recorded within the boundaries of the polyglot. This helps businesses decide what appropriate actions they can take to protect and enhance the habitats for the plant and animal species listed e.g., altering mowing regimes if rare bees are collecting pollen or installing bird feeders.

Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) 

The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) is an international not-for-profit which empowers companies to advance biodiversity, sustainability, employee engagement and community relations goals. Working with businesses on conservation projects for over 30 years, the WHC has developed a large bank of tools, tips and case studies of businesses that have undertaken voluntary projects on their lands to support sustainable ecosystems that surround them.

Business and Biodiversity Charter

In Northern Ireland, Business in the Community has created a Business and Biodiversity Charter as a framework for businesses to engage with biodiversity. The Charter is based around a staged approach, and is applicable to all organisations from micro-businesses to large facilities owned by multi-national companies.