Baseline biodiversity assessments

Baseline assessments or screening exercises are desk-based studies in which experts use global datasets to identify important areas for conservation and interpret how these relate to a company’s direct operations to understand where the greatest risks to a business lie. A business’s direct operations cover both activities and sites over which there is operational or financial control. These are where it has the greatest sphere of influence and the ability to take positive actions for biodiversity and, therefore, often form the obvious starting point for any company wanting to explore its relationship with biodiversity. The specialist biodiversity Nature Positive team will assess biodiversity and the natural-capital value for your sites and identify the risks and opportunities associated with your interactions with nature.

This service is used to help you improve your understanding of direct impacts and dependencies on nature at your sites and direct operations. There are numerous benefits to completing a baseline biodiversity assessment, including increased investor confidence, demonstrating diligence on environmental sustainability and cost reduction from highlighting risks to projects, and providing alternative, cost-effective options.

To prepare a baseline biodiversity assessment, the Nature Positive team completes desk-based research on all, or a relevant subset of, your sites. We examine biodiversity data at each site location and find out more about the main activities and processes carried out at each site. We might complement the desk-based research with site visits to validate our findings. We interpret the data to create an assessment of the biodiversity risk using a matrix of the geographic value of the feature affected and the likelihood of impact. Our team also write a report detailing the direct impacts and risks for each of your sites and providing a set of recommendations and next steps.

If you are interested in finding out more about how our baseline assessment can help you to understand your current impact on nature, please contact the team at Nature Positive.