The Align project releases recommendations for biodiversity measurement - Global Balance

The Align project has launched Recommendations for a Standard on Corporate Biodiversity Measurement and Valuation to assist businesses, financial institutions and policymakers in understanding the action required to create positive impacts on nature. These recommendations comprise a set of principles and technical criteria that define ‘what’ elements of biodiversity should be measured and ‘how’ this should be done in different business contexts.

Key recommendations include:

• The business context is important to determine appropriate measurement methods.
• The concept of ‘double materiality’ should be used to prioritise effort and attention.
• Indicators of ecosystem extent and condition should form the core of assessments of impact and
  dependencies.

Supported by the European Commission, the Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature (Align) Project aims to develop a generally accepted suite of methods, indicators and criteria for biodiversity measurement and valuation tools and approaches that can be used by businesses and financial institutions. The project will accelerate the natural evolution of natural capital approaches and biodiversity measurement and valuation from guidance to standardization.

Globalbalance worked alongside project partners ICF, UNEP-WCMC, Arcadis and the Capitals Coalition to deliver these recommendations.

The recommendations can be downloaded here.

Learn more about the Align project here.