08-09 SBRISK0410 Hyder.qxp 18/3/10 11:28 am Page 8
CORPORATE RISK
Biodiversity
A FAIR PRICE FOR THE
ECOSYSTEM
Biodiversity isn’t the simplest concept for businesses to understand, but it can
be simple to address. With tighter regulation and pressure from customers
smart companies are getting their houses in order, says Stephanie Wray
W
hat do you know about your temperature. By looking at the costs that wild or naturalised plants used in their
organisation’s risks and would be incurred by loss of or damage to products. While a single business cannot
opportunities in relation to these services, we can monetize take on responsibility for protecting air
biodiversity? If you are like most people, biodiversity, and we then start to have a quality for the entire planet, they can play
then probably not a great deal. One of the common currency in which to understand their part by managing their own
Cinderella dimensions of sustainability, its value. However, most businesses haven’t emissions. In exactly the same way, we can
biodiversity seems to suffer from thought about this yet – we were all manage biodiversity in our own back
businesses not understanding what it is – looking the other way, thinking that yards, and contribute to a wider network
and from the fact that you can’t measure it carbon was the only new currency. of linked sites that will maintain biological
on a half-hourly meter. So on the principle This is a big year for biodiversity. The diversity over a wider area.
of ‘what gets measured gets managed’, UK Government, along with other parties So what can you do? The first step is to
biodiversity is often left out in the cold. to the Convention on Biological Diversity, understand what you have by carrying out
Biodiversity quite simply means the sum committed to making a significant a simple biodiversity survey or audit of
of all of the variation of life on Earth – and reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity your site(s). This can just involve a simple
that’s a huge concept to get your head by 2010. Like most signatories, the UK has walkover survey coupled with research
around, let alone to apply to the operations made little progress towards this. In the into existing records in the area. An
of a single business. Yet biodiversity does EU, we have strong regulation through a ecologist can help you to understand what
represent a significant issue for network of protected sites across Europe, the results mean in terms of protected or
organisations to deal with. So why is the Natura 2000 network, and through rare species that might be present. At this
it important? specific protection for rare or vulnerable stage, many organisations will say: ‘But
Until recently, it was difficult to place a species of plants and animals. These are why would I want to find out what I
value on biodiversity. There is, most people important, but are clearly not enough to have on my site? Surely then it will just
believe, some intrinsic benefit to the world stop the long-standing trend in extinctions become a constraint? I am better off in
in having coral reefs, or tropical rain and reduction in diversity. To achieve this, blissful ignorance.’
forests, but that benefit was difficult to we need to act at the local scale, but I can understand that view, but if you
quantify. The only measures we had were consider the wider connections. plan to develop, refurbish or maintain your
based on qualitative studies of the All businesses rely on ecosystem services premises at any point, it is probably far
population’s ‘willingness to pay’ for nature to function; most rely on natural processes better to know as early as possible what the
conservation. How much of an increase of regeneration and assimilation to deal constraints are. When dealing with natural
would you be prepared to see in your tax with the waste materials they produce, systems and processes there can be seasonal
bill to make sure the world continues to some may require clean water for their constraints. Certain species can only be
support polar bears, for example? processes, and others rely on the harvest of surveyed at certain times of the year, and if
Recent developments in economics, mitigation needs to be put in place, there
however, have allowed us to look at may be only narrow windows of the year
biodiversity in a different way, by
considering the values of the products and
services that the natural world provides for
us. These ‘ecosystem services’ include the
‘
Businesses can manage
when this can be done.
biodiversity in their own
For example, I was once called in to
back yards, and contribute
advise on the conversion of a nursing home
into a luxury hotel in the Cotswolds. The
ability to grow food and fibre, the
to a wider network
building contained a large breeding roost
provision of clean water and pure air, the of greater horseshoe bats, one of the rarest
processing of waste and the control of
8 April 2010 ❘ SB FutureProof
’
of linked sites species in the UK. We needed to make
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