2. Biodiversity Pillar content

Context Analysis, Stakeholders, Risk and opportunities

The CO2 Pillar checks context analysis in the same way as the other pillars:

• Issues (both internal and external) related to CO2 and the value chain need to be analysed.
• The organization should identify the stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved.
• After the context and stakeholder analysis, CO2 specific risks and opportunities should be addressed

Leadership

The Pillar checks if management is committed and shows leadership with regard to Biodiversity.

Planning

According to this standard, a company’s policy must include:

• the relationship between biodiversity and the organization’s vision, mission and strategy
• global and national biodiversity trends and relevant policy developments
• concrete goals for improving biodiversity, globally and/or nationally
• the importance of identifying and involving internal and external stakeholders in the policy and actions for biodiversity
• the importance of identifying the direct impacts of the organization on biodiversity as well as the indirect impacts via the supply chain and customer base
• communicating about biodiversity with suppliers and customers

Furthermore, the pillar checks if an organization:

• has made an inventory of, and prevents and limits, the actual and potential adverse effects of the organization on biodiversity:
• is actively involved in biodiversity action for specific areas in the supply chain (e.g. via biodiversity covenant, Biodiversity Action Plan, Biodiversity Management Plan)

Support

In the GSE standard, attention is paid to active involvement in biodiversity action for specific geographical areas, the adoption of specific and suitable supporting tools for managing biodiversity and impacts on biodiversity (e.g. education, impact assessment), and to communication about biodiversity with various stakeholders.

Operation

For operational aspects, organizations are asked to show:

• the percentage of their turnover created by selling products or services that are demonstrably beneficial for biodiversity,
• and the degree to which they have implemented conditions relating to biodiversity into contracts with suppliers and supply chain audit effort.
• other specific measures and projects for improving biodiversity, e.g. . projects to improve biodiversity on the company sites or in the public space.

Evaluation and improvement

The GSE pillar on biodiversity checks of biodiversity impacts are in fact measured, monitored and assessed with specific, suitable and quantitative targets for:

• Company sites/terrains, according to the IPC method.
• Direct company impacts resulting from company processes
• Impacts in the supply chain

Last but not least, organizations must show that they draw conclusions from the biodiversity assessment and work towards continuous improvement on the basis of the assessment.