The TRADE Hub, the Aligning Biodiversity Measures for Business (ABMB) collaboration and the EU B@B Platform are organising an online workshop on 15 December 2020 between 3:30 and 5:00 CET to discuss “Biodiversity measurement for agricultural supply chains”.
Context
Most businesses depend on or impact biodiversity, either directly through their activities or indirectly through their supply chains. To manage impacts and dependencies on biodiversity, and demonstrate improved performance and compliance to targets, businesses need robust measurement approaches.
However, the business community is currently facing a number of challenges to measure biodiversity performance. These challenges relate to factors such as traceability to growing locations, availability of data, understanding and measurement of the full scope of impacts and dependencies, including feed for livestock, and the utility of existing biodiversity measurement approaches for businesses.
In a context of growing attention to biodiversity by businesses, this common initiative aims to identify research gaps in the field of measuring biodiversity and improve the linkage between existing scientific research and pragmatic approaches that can be used by businesses to manage performance. This endeavour will ultimately aim to form a common view on the metrics and indicators for monitoring and disclosure of biodiversity impacts and dependencies for companies with agricultural supply chains.
Objectives
This online workshop will build on the results of a survey and interviews conducted with businesses with agricultural supply chains to assess current understanding and use of biodiversity measurement approaches. Its overall aim is to understand the needs of business for guidance and alignment of the existing approaches for assessing the biodiversity impact of agricultural supply chains. It will among others:
- Include a series of concise testimonies from companies outlining their search for biodiversity measurement solutions and the challenges they are facing
- Aim to clarify the existing business and biodiversity nomenclature (e.g. biodiversity “metrics”, “tools”, “data sources”, “frameworks”) and how they link together; these will be illustrated with concrete examples
- Provide a state of play of intended applications of existing approaches for companies (e.g. risk profiling, performance tracking, target setting etc.) and the related landscape of tools and metrics
- Bring clarification in the landscape of initiatives and how these link together
- Present latest updates on a decision framework for finding a suitable biodiversity measurement solution developed by the EU B@B Platform
- Discuss and summarize concrete needs of companies regarding measuring the impacts of agricultural supply chains on biodiversity
Who is this event for?
The online workshop is open to representatives of companies sourcing or producing agricultural products in the EU or globally (e.g. farmers or producers of raw materials, distributors, traders, producers of end products, retailers) across food and non-food (e.g. textile, energy, etc.) agricultural sectors. It is also open to researchers and practitioners involved in the development or application of biodiversity measurement for companies.
To register for the online workshop, please fill out this brief online form. For any questions contact Janne Fillet.
About the organisers
This event is part of a series of opportunities under the TRADE Hub for corporates to engage in discussion around key challenges and solutions to sustainable commodity trade systems.
It is co-organised by the EU B@B Platform, a business-to-business sharing platform initiated by the European Commission to help businesses integrate natural capital and biodiversity considerations into business practices.