Do you know the biodiversity footprint of your products?
Do you know what impact your products have on biodiversity? Did you know that the impact on biodiversity can be quantified in the same way as a climate footprint? This was the topic of a presentation given on Tuesday by biologist Dr Ulrike Eberle, managing partner of corsus, as part of the digital working group on biodiversity organised by the Centre for Sustainable Leadership.
Similar to the climate footprint, the biodiversity footprint estimates the impact of products and services on biodiversity, making it possible to compare products or product origins based on an aggregated value. Like the climate footprint, the biodiversity footprint is calculated on the basis of the international standards for life cycle assessments, ISO 14040 & ISO 14044. The impact is always estimated using what is known in technical jargon as an impact assessment method. Ulrike presented the BVI method for this purpose. BVI stands for Biodiversity Value Increment. What is special about this method is that – when the impact assessment is based on specific values – it is directly linked to management parameters from agriculture, forestry or mining, thus enabling relevant influencing factors to be identified. As part of the BioVal – Biodiversity Valuing and Valuation research project, which was led by Dr Ulrike Eberle, the method has been expanded to include management parameters for marine biodiversity, among other things. It has also been tested in practice with the companies Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co.KG, Seeberger GmbH and FRoSTA AG.
The biodiversity footprint can be quantified in the same way as the climate or water footprint.
But how is the biodiversity footprint calculated?
In her presentation, Ulrike explained how the footprint is calculated. The most important information required is knowledge of the location or region where land use takes place and the area-time of use. For agricultural products, this is the reciprocal of the yield per area. In addition, management parameters are required to calculate a specific biodiversity footprint. For agricultural products, these include, for example, the use of fertilisers and pesticides, the size of the field, information on soil cultivation and cover, and structural elements such as groups of trees, hedges, stone walls or streams on the land. The exact information required is listed in a free-to-use dashboard and explained in training videos. If the information on the management parameters is not available, or at least not for all raw materials, the biodiversity footprint can also be calculated on the basis of general, generic information. In this case, the average yield for the product in the respective country of origin and a suitable characterisation factor, which can be taken from a publication, are required.
The advantage of the BVI method is that it allows a combination of generic and specific approaches. This is particularly important when specific information is not available for all components of a more complex product.
When will you start determining the biodiversity footprint of your products?
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!
Are you familiar with the regional biodiversity alliances of the DIHK and IHKs? If you become a member of one of the regional alliances, you will have the opportunity to participate in free training courses that cover biodiversity management, various possible tools for biodiversity management, sustainability reporting requirements for biodiversity and practical examples. There is also room for exchange with other companies in the region. corsus conducts the training courses on behalf of DIHK-Service GmbH.
