Biodiversity in the supply chain

Together with WWF Germany (project management) and Systain Consulting, corsus is working on the project “Supply Chain and Biodiversity“. The aim of the project is to develop a tool that will help small and medium–sized enterprises in particular to track and minimize biodiversity risks along their supply chain.  

The Anthropocene is leaving its mark: global resource consumption increased by 70% between 2000 and 2017′. At the same time, global extinction rates have increased to between ten toand one hundred times the average extinction rate over the last 10 million years. The proportion of species currently threatened with extinction is about 25% with an upward trend 75% of land area has already been dramatically altered by human activities; 66% of marine area has been significantly impacted; and 85% of wetlands have been lost to human encroachment². These losses pose immense risks to the stability of our societies and thus to human well-being. In the World Economic Forum’s recent annual Global Risk Report, biodiversity loss ranks third among global threats, along with the risk of extreme weather events and failure to meet climate targets³. The topics of biodiversity and sustainable production also play a role in the context of the globally adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): While SDGs 14 and 15 aim to protect biodiversity on land and in water, SDG 12 aims to promote sustainable production and consumption. But how can companies source raw materials with the lowest possible biodiversity risk?  

This question is important for companies because biodiversity risks in the supply chain can threaten their success or even their continued existence in multiple ways. The project will therefore develop a tool that enables companies to identify physical, regulatory, and reputational and market risks in their supply chain at an early stage. Because only if risks are known can they be adequately responded to and appropriatecan solution options can be developed.  

corsus provides the scientific basis for this: global biodiversity risks along the supply chain are studied for three exemplary industries and catalogs of measures to mitigate the risks are drawn up. The results of these studies are then condensed into industry profiles that provide practical information on biodiversity risks as well as recommendations for action for SMEs.  

The project uses current methods that link an innovative biodiversity impact assessment according to Lindner et al. 2019⁴ with satellite data and environmentally extended, multi-regional input-output models (EE-MRIO).  

Duration: 2021- 2023  

  

The project “Supply Chain and Biodiversity” is funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).