As environmental challenges make daily headlines across the world, tools including AI, Earth observation and other data sources are underpinning new efforts to measure and evaluate private sector companies’ effects on the natural world.
The work started with voluntary tracking efforts, but became mandatory in EU countries this month. A new from co-authors at , , the , and ̽̽’s Gund Institute for Environment offers approaches for companies to track and disclose their impacts and reliance on nature.
“Companies, many with enormous resources and global footprints, now have an outsized impact on biodiversity worldwide,” says Prof. Taylor Ricketts, Director of the Gund Institute. “At the same time, their businesses often rely heavily on those same natural systems. That means it’s critical – for everyone – to reduce the impacts the private sector exerts on the biodiversity that supports our lives.”
The global biodiversity crisis has resulted in the emergence of new environmental reporting frameworks, including the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and the EU’s (CSRD). The mandatory CRSD requires companies to assess nature-related metrics involving several scientific disciplines. Despite the apparent complexity of assessments, advancements in ecosystem science, Earth observation (EO), and artificial intelligence (AI) make scientifically robust reporting both logistically and financially feasible.
A collaboration among co-authors at Planet, Microsoft, the Natural Capital Project, and the Gund Institute, this white paper:
- Demonstrates that biodiversity and ecosystem reporting can be streamlined and scientifically robust.
- Highlights examples from both the scientific literature and real-world cases of companies using EO and AI technologies to facilitate scalable and cost-effective reporting.
- Synthesizes opportunities, challenges, and proposed actions for getting started and improving biodiversity and ecosystem measurement and reporting.
The current lack of information creates challenges for both companies and investors, Ricketts says. “Biodiversity affects their bottoms lines as well, whether that’s soft drink producers who need clean fresh water or food companies needing sustainable sources of wild fish,” Ricketts says, noting, “Biodiversity is central to their business, but they do very little reporting on how they affect nature and how nature affects them. This lack of information prevents good decisions, wise investing, and real accountability.”
While the impacts of some businesses, such as mining or agricultural operations, are obvious on the physical landscape, other types of companies can also measure and track their environmental effects using these resources. “The tools we discuss in this white paper are essential for any company that wants to start understanding their impact on biodiversity, and biodiversity’s impact on them,” Ricketts says.
This story was adapted from a by Planet.