The Company and Ecosystemic Services

The Company and Ecosystemic Services

Biodiversity, that is, the variability of living beings and their interactions, goes far beyond the sum of the species, and includes services that lead to undisputed and often essential bene?ts and opportunities for businesses, and for social wellbeing and development.

The company is intrinsically linked to biodiversity and ecosystemic services, to their use, and this can be an opportunity, not a legislative straightjacket. It is foreseeable that the valuation of the ecosystems, of their services, will be progressively incorporated in the public support policies and in legislation.

All companies, therefore, interact and have some direct or indirect dependency on biodiversity and ecosystemic services, even though the relations vary depending on the di?erent sectors, and even within
each sector and activity. These relations depend on the
location of the company, the source of its raw materials, how its supply chains operate, the technology used in production and transport to the points where its customers are located.

Ecosystemic goods and services are indirect or direct contributions that eco-systems make to human wellbeing and its activities. These contributions can be resources or processes and provide bene?ts that can be divided into three types: ecological, socio-cultural and economic.

Even though multiple ecosystemic service assessment studies and initiatives have been implemented, two international projects are benchmarks when addressing the classi?cation and de?nition and valuation of the ecosystemic services: “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” (TEEB), and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA).

These are the approaches analysed in this guide that seeks to showcase the concepts associated to ecosystemic services and to the way for biodiversity to be incorporated in the decision making at business level, based on the cutting-edge work  being carried out not only in Europe but also internationally. It also includes a case study carried out by Iberdrola for the corporate assessment of ecosystems as part of hydro-electric schemes.

Classi?cation of ecosystemic services