Work Streams

Projects

Natural Value Initiative

The Natural Value Initiative (NVI) is a collaboration between international environmental NGO, Fauna & Flora International, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, Nyenrode University (the Dutch business school) and VBDO (Dutch socially responsible investment NGO) and Brazilian business school, FGV. We are working with a leadership group within the finance sector to build the business case for companies to avoid, minimise and mitigate their impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services and to evaluate a range of industry sectors on their management of impacts and dependence on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

In 2010 and 2011 we are focusing on the mining and energy sectors. We are working with the following investors: Aviva Investors, F&C Investments, Mn Services, Pax World, VicSuper and Syntrus Achmea Asset Management.

For further information see www.naturalvalueinitiative.org

The Natural Value Initiative: The Ecosystem Services Benchmark
A tool enabling institutional investors to understand the impacts and dependency of their investments on biodiversity and ecosystem services

The Natural Value Initiative: Linking Shareholder and Natural Value
Results achieved in the first application of the Ecosystem Services Benchmark tool on the global Food, Beverage and Tobacco sectors
Executive summary

• Media Release - 22 Oct, 2009 - Companies must gear up to weather the coming natural resource crunch

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity - TEEB

The TEEB study, the biodiversity equivalent of the 'Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change' will explore the economic significance of the global loss of biological diversity. In May 2008, an interim report of the study was presented at the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, Germany, 2006.

The second phase, TEEB II has commenced and will continue until 2010. It will build on the work of TEEB I with a report (D3 or Deliverable 3) focusing specifically on business. It will set out the economic case and identify economic tools to help businesses around the world make the transition to a ‘green’ economy, in which natural capital and its risks and returns are neither remote nor external to business success.

The TEEB report for business aims to:

• offer practical guidance for business on how to measure and manage the risks of biodiversity and ecosystem losses;
• explore innovative economic tools to enable production to be more biodiversity-friendly;
• help business leaders identify and grasp new market opportunities linked to the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources
• provide business managers with the tools to inform themselves and others about the wider impacts of business activities, not only in terms of financial and human capital but also natural capital.

The UNEP FI Secretariat will be coordinating financial services sector contributions to the D3 component of TEEB II, which will be launched in October 2010 at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, in Nagoya, Japan.

Forest Footprint Disclosure project

The Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD Project) is a new UK government-supported initiative, created to help investors identify how an organisation’s activities and supply chains contribute to tropical deforestation, and link this 'forest footprint' to their value.

Modelled on the successful Carbon Disclosure Project, it aims to create transparency and shed light on a key challenge within investor portfolios, where currently there is little quality information.

The FFD Project launched on 15 June, 2009 at with the backing of 12 major financial institutions with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management.

Participating companies will gain a better understanding of their own environmental dependencies, and how the changing climate and new regulatory frameworks could affect access to resources and the cost of doing business in the long term.

The disclosure information will be reported annually, enabling investors to identify the sustainable businesses of the future as well possible risks related to a company’s forest footprint.

In January 2010, the first annual disclosure report will:

• Identify companies leading on this issue
• Analyse how companies are positioned to sustain their value
• Offer peer group comparison of companies to drive sector performance improvement

The FFD Steering Committee Members are: Carbon Disclosure Project, Fauna & Flora International, Global Canopy Programme, The Prince’s Rainforests Project, Strategic Environmental Consulting, UK Department for International Development and UNEP Finance Initiative.