The Development and use of biodiversity indicators in business: an overview

Businesses are seeking biodiversity indicators to help assess performance for a variety of business applications to address a range of internal and external drivers. However, challenges exist to develop indicators that can cut through the complexity of natural systems, display clear and simple measures of biodiversity, and be relevant to different business applications. Whilst some businesses are seeking one indicator to be used across a variety of business applications, the reality is that assessing biodiversity performance for different business applications at different temporal and spatial scales will often require different indicators.

This paper introduces a spectrum of business applications for biodiversity indicators, which is designed to be a resource for businesses seeking to clarify the business application where biodiversity indicator(s) are required. This spectrum outlines four prominent scopes for business applications of biodiversity indicators, which range from sitelevel to corporate-level assessment of biodiversity performance (scopes A – C), through to third-party biodiversity performance assessment (scope D).

Keywordsbiodiversity, indicators, management, business opportunities