Biodiversity reporting is quickly becoming a hot topic in corporate circles. With nearly a million animal and plant species being pushed to the brink of extinction thanks to deforestation and other human activities, the time to act is now.
Nature has never been under so much pressure before, but the EU is finally taking precise steps to limit the damage done by economic expansion. Thanks to the Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive (CSRD), EU companies are now held to a higher standard.
They are obliged to report on how they meet material sustainability quotas and be more transparent with the public on how they impact the environment. That’s where Fauna Photonics comes into play.
Our data-driven solutions help all parties quantify the risks by crafting reports based on habitat assessment and continuous biodiversity monitoring. We help our clients meet corporate biodiversity targets as well as raise society’s overall environmental awareness.
What is CSRD?
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive or CSRD, is a groundbreaking new EU policy that raises the standard in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting. It’s designed to improve transparency, consistency, and introduce standardization across corporate sustainability reporting.
First implemented in January 2023, the CSRD is being progressively rolled out. The first reporting obligations commence for the financial 2024 year and reports are expected to be published in 2025.
This directive applies to all large EU companies, listed SMEs, and companies with operations in the EU. Under the CSRD, companies are required to adhere to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
When does CSRD take effect?
These regulations were adopted by the European Commission on July 31, 2023, comprising twelve comprehensive guidelines that focus on biodiversity disclosure. The CSRD and ESRS E4 will become legally binding in the EU from January 1, 2024.
Biodiversity Reporting: Why is it Important?
The CSRD mandates reporting on material sustainability issues and aims to significantly enhance transparency. Biodiversity is a complex and critical aspect of sustainability and thus holds particular importance.
Since the emergence of the Green Deal, a legislation that aims to move towards a more sustainable future, and the Kunming-Montréal GBF, the need for businesses to include biodiversity preservation in their sustainability reporting systems has become evident.
With the implementation of CSRD, nearly 49,000 European companies will be obliged to elevate their sustainability reporting to the same quality and relevance level as financial reporting.
Business and Biodiversity
According to the World Economic Forum, nearly $44 trillion of global economic value generated in 2019, which was well over half of global GDP that year, is directly tied to natural assets and depends on their ecosystems functioning properly.
For anyone that’s shortsighted and still isn’t seeing the big picture yet. Yes, habitat assessment is crucial for sustainable growth and productivity. We are not pushing an agenda. While state entities that provide utilities have taken their share of responsibilities, it’s now time for private capital to play by the new rules.
While deforestation and water pollution have been the main pillars of this effort, it’s time we take biodiversity monitoring a lot more seriously. By destroying living quarters, we’ve reached an unprecedented loss and degradation of biodiversity globally due to human activity.
So why hasn’t this issue been addressed until now? Well here are some of the main reasons:
- Not understanding how biodiversity relates to businesses
- Lack of data to support these claims
- Lack of motivation and urgency to implement new methodologies due to their cost
This is where Fauna Photonics steps in to cause a major shift. Our analytical solutions can provide the data necessary to gain a much clearer picture of the damage being done to the environment.
With the EU’s new hardline approach, companies now have all of the financial incentives in the world to care about developing new frameworks that don’t put profit over the well-being of our offspring.
It’s about time we acknowledge the pleas of biologists from across the world. We now have the legislation and tools needed to make a major change. Fauna Photonics will be an integral part of that process at every step of the way.
