Business for Biodiversity Ireland (BFBI) is a not-for-profit organisation that was established in response to a growing need for guidance for Irish business around their impacts and dependencies on the natural world. The establishment of the Platform was an objective of the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) 2017 – 2021 with the Platform now owning seven objectives set out in the recently released 4th NBAP 2023 – 2030.
The main aims of the Platform are to encourage and empower Irish businesses to assess their impacts and dependencies on nature and create meaningful biodiversity strategies around that assessment. BFBI aims to help businesses bring nature into all levels of decision-making and accelerate action and financing of restoration and remediation of damaged ecosystems. Our work will support companies to develop strategies for a nature positive future benefitting both the organisation and our natural environment.
BFBI has produced a “Roadmap to Nature Positive” which details the steps that businesses can take to assess their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity, to commit to SMART science-based targets and ultimately, to transform their business models so that they operate in a nature-positive way and within the planetary boundaries. The Platform will offer up-to-date guidance, training videos, knowledge sharing workshops and relevant resources to assist businesses in that journey.
The roadmap consists of three phases; Assess, Commit and Transform. At each phase of the journey, we will encourage businesses to disclose key information. The Assess phase allows the business to understand how direct operations and value chain activities impact on nature and how the business depends on healthy ecosystems. This phase is broken down into eight goals, from “Getting Started” to “Making a Disclosure”. These guidelines were developed in partnership with EU-based collaborators and a Community of Practice Pilot Programme comprising Irish businesses, such as ESB, Bus Eireann, Bank of Ireland, Glenveagh Properties, An Post and SAP Landscapes. The Commit and Transform phases will be developed through working with multi-sector and sector-specific Communities of Practice and quarterly members forums facilitated by the platform.
Our membership will have access to these assets and more as they are developed.
