Opportunity to conduct biodiversity footprinting

As Melbourne’s largest water utility, Yarra Valley Water (YVW) recognised its responsibility towards sustainability and wanted to demonstrate its commitment and progress to restorative practices. The company sought GIST Impact’s help to progress in its biodiversity journey, to develop its first Integrated Profit & Loss Report and benchmark its environmental and social impacts.

While measuring the company’s biodiversity footprinting, the team unearthed a key insight – the company’s biodiversity impact from land clearing was greater (in terms of materiality) than its greenhouse gas impact. This finding prompted the YVW team to revise their corporate strategy. As a next step, YVW carried out a Potentially Disappeared Fraction (PDF) biodiversity assessment of the approximate 1500 hectares of land it owned, spread across 190 sites. They identified 12 sites with high-value remnant biodiversity requiring enhanced protection and identified the top 10 restoration opportunities.

Results

With data that quantified the value of these opportunities – and associated risks from inaction – the company was able to gain backing from its board to embed biodiversity into its corporate strategy, establish a business case for a focused programme, and start to implement via a series of strategic investments. The company also pledged to refund around $1.5 million annually to customers if they failed to meet their biodiversity targets. This is a commitment to taking biodiversity protection seriously, and to embracing science-based approaches to measuring and valuing nature.

We offer a suite of science-based data products that provide an accurate and comprehensive picture of companies’ impacts and dependencies of nature. Learn more about our solutions here.