Business and Biodiversity

While it might be common to picture “biodiversity” as something exotic, foreign, and with few connections to our daily lives, we all interact with biodiversity from the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep at night. The coffee we drink, the food we eat, the shoes we wear, the pillows we sleep on at night; all are made possible thanks to our planet’s biodiversity.

It is the same for our businesses. No matter what industry we operate in, we are connected to biodiversity in an inextricable way through what are called “ecosystem services”: running water, clean air, fuel, to name but a few.

In this course, we will introduce the importance of biodiversity for businesses, and look at the ways in which enterprises both depend on and impact biodiversity, including in terms of ongoing biodiversity loss on Earth. In the second module, we will look at how to undertake a general assessment of what ecosystem services are most relevant for your business, as well as how to assess risks and opportunities likely to arise from ongoing changes in biodiversity in your area. All of this will enable you to translate your new understanding into a general “biodiversity strategy” for your business.