What are some effective ways to incorporate biodiversity into supply chain management?

1 Assess your impacts and dependencies

The first step to incorporate biodiversity into your supply chain management is to assess your impacts and dependencies on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Biodiversity and ecosystem services are the benefits that nature provides to people, such as food, water, materials, pollination, climate regulation, and cultural values. You need to identify how your business activities affect biodiversity and ecosystem services, both positively and negatively, and how they depend on them for your inputs, operations, and outputs. You can use tools such as the Natural Capital Protocol, the Biodiversity Impact Assessment (BIA), or the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) to help you conduct this assessment.

3 Implement your actions and strategies

The third step to incorporate biodiversity into your supply chain management is to implement your actions and strategies to achieve your goals and targets. You need to integrate biodiversity considerations into your procurement, production, distribution, and consumption processes, and adopt best practices and standards that minimize your negative impacts and maximize your positive impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. You can use tools such as the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP), the Sustainable Sourcing Code (SSC), or the Biodiversity in Standards and Labels (BISL) to help you implement your actions and strategies.

4 Engage with your stakeholders

The fourth step to incorporate biodiversity into your supply chain management is to engage with your stakeholders to build trust, collaboration, and innovation. You need to involve your stakeholders in your biodiversity assessment, goal setting, action implementation, and progress reporting, and seek their feedback, input, and support. You also need to participate in multi-stakeholder platforms and initiatives that promote biodiversity conservation and restoration, such as the Business for Nature Coalition, the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B), or the Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity (GPBB).

5 Report and disclose your performance

The fifth step to incorporate biodiversity into your supply chain management is to report and disclose your performance and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. You need to use credible and transparent methods and indicators to report and disclose your biodiversity performance and impacts, and demonstrate your accountability and commitment to your stakeholders. You also need to use your reporting and disclosure as a tool for learning and improvement, and identify your gaps, challenges, and opportunities for enhancing your biodiversity performance and impacts. You can use tools such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), or the Biodiversity Disclosure Project (BDP) to help you report and disclose your performance.

6 Learn and innovate

The sixth step to incorporate biodiversity into your supply chain management is to learn and innovate to continuously improve your biodiversity performance and impacts. You need to review and evaluate your biodiversity assessment, goals, actions, strategies, and performance, and identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You also need to seek and share best practices, lessons learned, and solutions with your peers, partners, and experts, and foster a culture of innovation and creativity that values biodiversity as a source of inspiration and competitive advantage. You can use tools such as the Biodiversity Innovation Hub, the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), or the Biodiversity Revisited Initiative (BRI) to help you learn and innovate.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?