Biodiversity-And-Ecosystem-Services-Brazilian-Business-Experiences-2012 En.Pdf
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Credits CEBDS - Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development Av. das Américas, 1.155 – grupo 208, 22631-000, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil Phone: +55 (21) 2483.2250, e-mail: [email protected], site: www.cebds.org Content and editors PADMA Environmental Consulting Phone: +55 (21) 3437-3238, e-mail: [email protected], website: www.apadma.com General Coordination CEBDS - Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development Translation AT Tradução e Interpretação Design I Graicci Comunicação e Design Printed by Grafito Gráica e Editora Circulation 1000 copies Photography Image bank SXC The other images were provided by the companies whose cases appear in this publication. Sponsors: 5 06 Overview 09 Message from the President 10 Introduction 13 What is CEBDS? 14 What is CTBio? 14 CTBio’s Work Plan Summary 15 Ecosystem Services and the Business Sector 15 Companies and sectors 15 Discussing and integrating the issue into business strategies 16 Ecosystem services relevant to business 16 Company likelihood of exposure to risks and opportunities 17 Assessment of the relationship between business and ES 17 Companies’ initiatives for the conservation of ES 18 Barriers to carrying out ES assessments 18 Reasons to include ES into business 19 Public policies and ES 20 Tools to assess Ecosystem Services 22 Case studies 39 Conclusion 41 Recommendations 42 References 6 CEBDS Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development – Overview 77 Companies’ capacity to include biodiversity the relationship between productive practices, and ecosystem services in business strategies is dependence, and impact on ecosystems, as well increasingly important given the evolving debate as on possible risks and opportunities associ- and regulations on these topics in corporate ated with including biodiversity and ecosystem social environmental management. services (BES) in their operations. Many companies have tried to improve their Impact assessments on the dependence among performance by including new management businesses, biodiversity and ecosystem services practices and deining environmental goals due in productive processes demands the effort to the relevance of these matters in business of collecting and systemizing information and agendas. which is part of company routine. At irst sight, data and information gathering can seem to Furthermore, businesses that on a proactively demand signiicant inancial investment and an effort try to assess and include biodiversity effort to train teams, a challenge which must be and ecosystem services in their operations will overcome. become a reference for those still exploring ways to engage in the debate. This knowledge By anticipating possible rules and regulatory base will gain recognition are seen as natural markets, companies that know how to relate to their operations biodiversity and ecosystem resources become more scarce and strategic services can also be pioneers in developing assets, both for the productive sector and for new products, regulatory frameworks, moni- society as a whole. toring mechanisms and even in deining best However, companies need to further under- strategies and methodological approaches for stand the topic in order to include biodiversity the entrepreneurial sector. and ecosystem services into their environmen- The Biodiversity and Biotechnology Working tal management systems. Group (CTBIO is the acronym in Portuguese) It is dificult for companies to relate ecosys- organized a series of workshops on biodiver- tems quality and well-being to their bottom sity and ecosystems services to provide mem- line mainly due to the lack of knowledge about ber companies the opportunity to become 8 CEBDS Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development – This publication is an effort made by the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) and associate companies to adopt strategies for biodiversity and ecosystem services management in their businesses between 2011 and 2012. more familiar with the matter. Concepts and tools to assess and value biodiversity and ecosystem services were reviewed. CTBIO’s agenda includes concepts such as what ecosystem services are, how to quantify their contribu- tion for businesses and how to assess them as leading topics for the last two years. Thus, important debate on the applicability of each tool in companies with different proiles, as well as on assessment scales and opportunities related to the analysis took place. The need to expand business capacity to assess ecosys- tem services (ES) has been a recurrent theme, as well as the need to better disseminate information about companies that have already carried out different in-house approaches to assess and value ES. This series of workshops provided an opportunity to further progress on the issue. Nevertheless, it is now necessary to raise awareness on the importance of ES and how companies depend and impact them. These themes are still incipient in the current corporate scenario and many times re- stricted to sustainability teams and seen as peripheral themes in spite of being strategic. In order to change this dynamic and broaden the perspective of the impact ES can have on productive processes, it is necessary to strengthen companies’ technical capacities, so that they can identify not only risks, but also opportunities that may arise from adopting this new approach in their business. 9 Message from the President The eleventh Conference of the Parties to the experiences” is a publication that translates great Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11) is an leadership by CEBDS and partner companies in the important landmark in the implementation of mea- search of more sustainable models. Lessons learnt sures to address the concerning scenario of global and expertise in the publication provide a practical biodiversity loss. The Brazilian Business Council for dimension to recommendations in the Vision Brazil Sustainable Development (CEBDS, acronym in Por- 2050 Report launched by CEBDS at Rio+20. tuguese) believes the growing awareness in Brazilian The publications holds a special meaning for CEBDS private sectors will be essential to redress biodiver- since it expresses the creative capacity of companies sity loss while responding to society’s demand for with a vision of the future in an attempt to work in a ecosystem services. closer relationship with all sectors in society. The business sector will play an essential role in We would like to express our sincere thanks to the COP11, as was the case with COP 10 held in Na- companies that sponsored this publication. We would goya, Japan in October, 2010. The Brazilian delega- also like to thank speakers, researchers and tool tion took a pioneer position in the international developers for sharing information. And last but not scenario. CEBDS, represented by the Biodiversity and least, we would like to thank all professionals that Biotechnology Working Group (CTBIO), introduced worked in training workshops, information systemati- 27 case studies developed by 17 companies from zation, publication translation and distribution. Brazil at the meeting. It clearly shows biodiversity is Warm regards and enjoy! steadily incorporated in business operations. We have now reached a new level in India. “Biodi- Marina Grossi versity and Ecosystem Services: Brazilian business CEBDS Executive President 10 CEBDS Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development – Introduction Over the last two decades, especially after the United as operational, regulatory, legal, reputational, market Nations Conference on the Environment and Devel- and product, as well as inancial risks. On the other opment held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, debate about hand, business opportunities may include eficiency the impact of human activities on nature includes gains, new products and markets, certiicates, new society as a whole. revenue sources and brand gains (WRI, 2012). At the same time, global decline of biodiversity is In 2005, the United Nations General Secretariat, to- increasingly evident and accelerated, while popular gether with the major global investors, developed the awareness rises. Companies, in turn, have realized “United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment that the rapid and continuous loss of biodiversity can (UNPRI)”, a commitment to include environmental, jeopardize ecosystem services (ES) supply, as well as social and governance issues in their corporate prac- operations results. tices. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Environmental damages represents annual losses of up has intensiied the collaboration of the private sector to US$4,5 trillion for global economy (UNPRI, 2012) in their negotiations since 2006. Likewise, the G8 and at least one third of this amount could have been group of environment ministers launched the docu- avoided had governments and businesses invested ment “Kobe call for Action for Biodiversity” to foster US$45 billion annually to preserve biodiversity and international cooperation and engagement of the ecosystem services (TEEB, 2010). private sector in the preservation and sustainable use of natural resources in 2008. Estimates point to 3,000 companies around the world as responsible for negative environmental externalities The World Bank International Financial Corporation that sum up to US$2 trillion net present value in 2008 (IFC) also launched the Sustainability Framework in (UNPRI, 2011). Such externalities have threatened 2006. Its objective is to foster transparent social and their own businesses