Ministers Malcolm Noonan and Pippa Hackett have encouraged businesses to sign up for the government's Business for Biodiversity platform, designed to help companies to take action to tackle the biodiversity crisis.
The Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform and the Minister of State for Land-Use & Biodiversity on Wednesday launched the initiative, which is supported by KPMG, Gas Networks Ireland, Bord na Mona and Coilte, at the National Biodiversity Conference at Dublin Castle.
Backed by the National Parks & Wildlife Service of the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage and the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, the platform aims to incentivise businesses to measure, design and demonstrate their biodiversity impact with the assistance of Natural Capital Ireland, the National Biodiversity Data Centre, and Business in the Community Ireland.
"I’m looking forward to seeing the Irish business community drive action on the biodiversity agenda. This platform aims to bring businesses together across sectors to assess biodiversity impact, take strategic action across a range of organisational levels, and learn from international best practice in corporate biodiversity governance," Minister Noonan said.
"Corporate action is an important element of the all-of-society approach required to address biodiversity loss and I encourage all businesses to sign up to the platform, and get involved to help protect, conserve and restore nature.”
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Minister Hackett added: "The business community has a vital role to play in our response to the biodiversity crisis, so I am delighted to support this platform.
"Employees and consumers alike are demanding more from businesses when it comes to their environmental credentials, and this platform will enable businesses to build their awareness of both their impacts and their dependencies on biodiversity.
"With that awareness, businesses will be empowered to take action to address biodiversity loss and to have a positive impact on the communities in which they operate."
The overarching aim of the platform is to support the implementation of the government's National Biodiversity Action Plan, stop activities that are harmful to biodiversity and promote its regeneration.
Business for Biodiversity received government seed funding for an initial three-year period, but the platform will operate a paid membership model for January onwards with a tiered fee system to suit businesses of all scales.
The platform will offer services such as education webinars to increase understanding of biodiversity, facilitation of networking and collaboration between participating companies, education on national policy and identification of nature-based solutions to address climate change and biodiversity loss.
Lucy Gaffney, platform development manager for Business for Biodiversity, acknowledged the role that participating companies play in developing standards and said that existing certifications will be incorporated into the platform to streamline compatibility.
"Biodiversity is complex and hard to measure which is why we are working with the National Biodiversity Data Centre and Business in the Community to ask businesses to come aboard at this early stage to help us develop a biodiversity evaluation metric that can be applied and tailored to businesses of every sector and scale," Gaffney said.
"Private enterprises are part of the solution to this crisis and important partners in addressing biodiversity loss.”
Photo: Pictured attending Biodiversity Conference 20022 were Malcolm Noonan, Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien and Senator Pippa Hackett with, from left to right, Ciarán Fallon, director of Coillte Nature; Anne Moore, sustainability manager at Gas Networks Ireland; Cillian McMahon, CSR Advisor at BITCI; Orlaith Delargy, associate director of sustainable futures at KPMG; Liam Lysaght, director of the National Biodiversity Data Centre; Dr Mark McCorry, ecology manager at Bord Na Mona, and Lucy Gaffney, development lead at Business For Biodiversity. (Pic: Maxwells Dublin)
