The Aligning Accounting Approaches for Nature (Align) Project aims to assist the European Commission’s efforts to support businesses, financial institutions and other stakeholders in developing standardized natural capital accounting practices by establishing a standardized approach to biodiversity measurement and valuation.
The Align project aims to develop a generally accepted suite of methods, indicators and criteria for biodiversity measurement and valuation tools and approaches that can be used by businesses and financial institutions. The project will accelerate the natural evolution of natural capital approaches and biodiversity measurement and valuation from guidance to standardization.
Last year, the Align project launched Recommendations for a Standard on Corporate Biodiversity Measurement and Valuation to assist businesses, financial institutions and policymakers in understanding the action required to create positive impacts on nature. These recommendations comprise a set of principles and technical criteria that define ‘what’ elements of biodiversity should be measured and ‘how’ this should be done in different business contexts.
Now, two additional guidance documents have been released as supplements to the main Align recommendations. These documents provide specific guidance to measure and value biodiversity at the site level and throughout supply chains, respectively.
These supplementary documents contain fictional case studies and advise on the most relevant methods and tools for measuring impacts and dependencies.
Download the Measuring and Valuing Biodiversity at Site Level supplement here.
Download the Measuring and Valuing Biodiversity Across Supply Chains supplement here.
The Align project has also released Measuring Ecosystem Condition – A Primer for Business. This Primer provides an overview of the principles and criteria for biodiversity measurement and valuation and guidance on applying these principles in practice.
The Primer provides an overview of screening and measuring ecosystem conditions in different decision-making contexts. The primer is designed to help businesses and financial institutions meet the requirements of emerging disclosure frameworks and achieve the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Download the Measuring Ecosystem Condition – A Primer for Business here.
Learn more about the Align project here.
