London - Assisting companies to report their links to and dependence upon ecosystems such as freshwaters, soil fertility and pollination services is the focus of a new publication released today by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and CREM.

Approach for Reporting on Ecosystem Services: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into an Organization's Performance Disclosure looks at emerging issues around ecosystem services and how corporations interact with them, reap the benefits and as a result need to monitor and protect them.

"Ecosystems are not just about exotic plants and rare animals, they also provide services, like clean water and building materials. Companies have an impact on these services, and also depend on them to support operations," said Jolanda van Schaick, one of the authors and a Senior Consultant at CREM, a consultancy whose projects focus on sustainable development.

All organizations are dependent on ecosystem services, a term used to capture the benefits people derive from ecosystems such as food, timber, soil fertility and fresh water. It is ecosystem services which support manufacturing and the final products and raw materials of traded goods. However, increasingly fast-paced economic development is putting pressure on the health and sustainability of ecosystems and the services they provide.

Measuring the financial value of ecosystem services to support corporate decision-making is also a challenge though enterprises are increasingly aware of their dependency on nature's services.

Many corporations already monitor pressures on the local environment, for example their emissions and effluents, but this does not cover all the benefits that people derive from ecosystems, or a company's reliance on ecosystem services.

"Several organizations are exploring ways to report the impacts on ecosystem services, but no global agreement on the most appropriate way has been found yet. The discussions and ideas collected in this publication provide a good basis for designing future reporting indicators," said Mônica Barcellos, who heads the Business, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of UNEP-WCMC, in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

The new publication suggests indicators that organizations could use to assess and report their impacts on ecosystem services.

Some examples of the reporting indicators for ecosystem services include:

* Nature and the amount of natural resources harvested, produced, traded and/or consumed, such as crops, fish, timber and fibers by a corporation in relation to the safe ecological limits;

* The volume of water consumed by corporations and its relation to total water availability in areas of operation, including identification of water sources;

* Economic cost to a corporation due to climate-related disasters, such as flooding, and crop failure;

* The volume of inputs from sources complying with credible and internationally recognized responsible production standards, including through labeling.

For more information, please contact:

Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Head of Media, on Tel: +254 20 7623084, Mobile: +254 733 632755, or when traveling: +41 795965737, in Indonesia +62-81287856714, or e-mail: Этот e-mail адрес защищен от спам-ботов, для его просмотра у Вас должен быть включен Javascript

Lucy Goodchild, Press & Communications Manager. Global Reporting Initiative, Tel: +31(0)20 531 0067 or +31 (0)6 303 99 531, Email: Этот e-mail адрес защищен от спам-ботов, для его просмотра у Вас должен быть включен Javascript

Notes to Editors:

About UNEP-WCMC

UNEP-WCMC is the specialized biodiversity information and assessment centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), run collaboratively with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), a UK charity, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. UNEP-WCMC's mission is to evaluate and highlight the many values of biodiversity and put authoritative biodiversity knowledge at the centre of decision-making. Since its establishment in the 1970s, the Centre has been at the forefront of the compilation, management, analysis and dissemination of global biodiversity information. (www.unep-wcmc.org/)

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) produces a comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework that is widely used around the world to enable greater organizational transparency. The Framework, including the Reporting Guidelines, sets out the Principles and Indicators organizations can use to report their economic, environmental, and social performance. GRI is committed to continuously improving and increasing the use of the Guidelines, which are freely available to the public. (www.globalreporting.org)

CREM

CREM offers consultancy, research and training in the field of sustainable development on international, national and local level. Our key areas of expertise include CSR and chain management, biodiversity and natural resources, local sustainable development and waste management. Started out in 1989 CREM's team currently consists of around 30 dedicated consultants with a multidisciplinary background and a broad international experience. (www.crem.nl)

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