Global sustainability consultancy Quantis announces the development of a new methodology — Ecosystem AnalytiQs — to enable corporate action to halt biodiversity loss through the quantification of company-driven impacts on nature.
While climate change has become a major concern for businesses, biodiversity has yet to reach the same level of priority, despite their inextricable link. Companies face major hurdles to effectively measure and manage biodiversity — which requires local considerations — at the corporate scale. Challenges related to connecting local conservation efforts to corporate value chains and the complex nature of global supply chains are significant.
We’re on the brink of ecological collapse, which represents dire consequences not only for natural ecosystems, but for human health and survival.
Quantis’ announcement comes on the heels of the largely procedural first phase of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15). After three delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government negotiations of targets for the global biodiversity framework have been postponed to spring 2022. All the while, biodiversity loss has now exceeded its planetary boundary.
“We’re on the brink of ecological collapse, which represents dire consequences not only for natural ecosystems, but for human health and survival. A drastic shift in the way we grow, govern, produce and consume as companies, governments and individuals has never been clearer,” states Édith Martin, Global Biodiversity Lead, Quantis. “Ecosystem AnalytiQs allows companies to better assess value chain impacts on nature and serves as a strong foundation for effective biodiversity strategies.”
Based on life cycle assessment, Ecosystem AnalytiQs allows the consultancy to guide companies to close the gap between knowledge and practice by providing meaningful metrics that enable them to prioritize actions to decrease their impact on biodiversity. While other methodologies exist to quantify biodiversity impacts, a business-oriented, regionalized method covering the entire value chain has largely been lacking.
Companies can use Ecosystem AnalytiQs to set science-based targets to operate within planetary boundaries. The methodology integrates local considerations, addressing climate change, water depletion, pollutant emission, land use and soil overexploitation. By combining the latest sustainability science with extensive experience in value chain analysis, Quantis experts use the methodology to provide tailored and actionable insights for the integration of nature into sustainability strategies — elevating biodiversity as a top issue for business.
