Will your business stand up for biodiversity?
We’re launching a new infographic that calls on organisations to raise awareness of Ireland’s threatened biodiversity and take action to protect and enhance it.
Whether you work for a tech giant, professional services consultancy, food manufacturer, public utility or pharmaceutical company, your organisation relies on the ‘ecosystem services’ we get from the natural world.
Ecosystem services underpin our societies and economies by providing the raw materials for business and for life: food, timber, minerals, fibre and fossil fuels, as well as clean water and air, a regular climate, flood protection, medicines, recreation and aesthetic benefits. But in order to function, ecosystem services require a healthy biodiversity.
Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life on earth, and we need to protect it to ensure the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. But despite Ireland’s green image, our new infographic shows that biodiversity in Ireland is not being adequately protected: of the habitats that are designated under EU environmental legislation, a staggering 91% are classified as ‘poor’ or ‘inadequate’. What’s more, only 5% of Ireland’s species have been assessed by scientists, and of that 5%, a fifth are threatened with extinction.
For those of us working in sustainability and corporate responsibility, there is an important story to tell about Ireland’s threatened biodiversity and the business benefits to be gained by protecting and enhancing it.
As outlined in last month’s e-zine (link), organisations can improve employee health and wellbeing by engaging with biodiversity initiatives, but there are further opportunities around community engagement, supply chain resilience and reputational enhancement. These ideas will be explored in detail in next month’s e-zine when we’ll be launching our new Biodiversity Framework – a guide to help you incorporate biodiversity into your CSR strategies.
Our infographic was developed with support from Trinity College Dublin (www.tcd.ie) and the National Biodiversity Data Centre (www.biodiversityireland.ie).
