TL;DR:
- Planet, in partnership with Microsoft, Natural Capital Project, and Gund Institute, introduces “Accelerating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Reporting.”
- Planet’s data and imagery play a crucial role in sustainability reporting, helping locate environmental footprints, assess risks, inform strategies, and track nature-positive actions.
- The white paper addresses the emerging field of biodiversity and ecosystem reporting, offering guidance and real-world examples.
- It highlights the importance of recent advances in EO, AI, and ecosystem science in making robust reporting achievable and cost-effective.
- The paper emphasizes the early adoption of biodiversity reporting and collaboration among stakeholders to shape the future of nature-related reporting.
Main AI News:
In an era where businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of sustainability, Planet, a Public Benefit Corporation, is taking a giant leap forward in aiding organizations, investors, and consumers in understanding and addressing the environmental challenges we face. Together with Microsoft, the Natural Capital Project, and the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont, Planet is proud to introduce “Accelerating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Reporting,” a groundbreaking white paper guide aimed at navigating the complexities of nature-related impacts and dependencies in sustainability reporting.
Sustainability reporting is more than just a corporate buzzword; it’s about gaining a comprehensive understanding of the impact of business activities on the environment, taking actionable steps to mitigate those impacts, and continuously tracking the results. Planet’s cutting-edge data and imagery play a pivotal role in all stages of this process, providing invaluable insights and solutions.
Here are four key ways in which Planet is revolutionizing sustainability reporting:
1. Locating Environmental Footprints: Planet, in collaboration with Ordnance Survey, Esri UK, Deloitte, and Trase, has established the Supply Chain Data Partnership (SCDP). This partnership provides a comprehensive location dataset for global supply chains, enabling companies to identify where their assets intersect with the environment, offering a crucial starting point for sustainable decision-making.
2. Evaluating Environmental Risks: Planet’s imagery and data, combined with the global Ecosystem Services Footprinting Tool, have been instrumental in assessing the environmental impacts and risks associated with various industries. For example, the Natural Capital Project and Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing used Planet imagery to assess the impacts of lithium mining in the supply chain.
3. Informing Sustainable Strategies: Bayer Environmental Science has leveraged Planet data to assess invasive species of vegetation and establish effective management regimes. Planet products provide the insights needed to create strategies that reduce environmental impacts and improve outcomes.
4. Tracking Nature-Positive Actions: Justdiggit, an organization dedicated to restoring life in drought-laden deserts, used Planet’s Planetary Variables products to evaluate the success of their efforts. This demonstrates how Planet’s analytics can help track the benefits of nature-positive actions over time.
One emerging and critical aspect of sustainability is biodiversity and ecosystem reporting. As the decline of global nature accelerates, frameworks have emerged to shed light on the materiality of environmental changes for business investors and consumers. This includes compliance-based regulations such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and voluntary frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Unlike climate reporting, biodiversity and ecosystem reporting involves tracking a diverse set of indicators, making it more complex. Fortunately, advancements in ecosystem science, Earth observation (EO), and artificial intelligence (AI) are making robust reporting more achievable and cost-effective.
In “Accelerating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Reporting,” readers are guided through the intricacies of biodiversity and ecosystem reporting, from scoping to assessing and reporting. The white paper provides real-world examples demonstrating how recent advancements in EO, AI, and ecosystem science can offer up-to-date and actionable insights for biodiversity and ecosystem metrics, such as ecosystem conversion and species conservation. These techniques are scalable, interoperable, and easily integrated into company workflows, empowering businesses to report material dependencies and impacts effectively while setting meaningful targets and policies for nature-positive actions.
To facilitate immediate action, the paper surveys numerous data sources and tools, offering recommendations on how corporate, regulatory, and scientific stakeholders can collaborate to address challenges efficiently. Businesses that embrace biodiversity and ecosystem reporting early, incorporating new data and tools as they become available, will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of nature-related reporting.
In a critical decade marked by climate change and biodiversity loss, Planet remains committed to supporting its users in realizing their sustainability ambitions and advancing toward a carbon-neutral, nature-positive future. Planet’s imagery and insights enable companies to measure their environmental impacts, dependencies, and opportunities across a wide range of sustainability topics and reporting frameworks. The time to embark on this journey towards a sustainable future is now, and Planet is here to lead the way.
Conclusion:
This collaborative effort by Planet and Microsoft, along with their partners, signifies a significant step towards enhancing environmental reporting and sustainability practices across industries. The integration of advanced technologies, such as EO and AI, into sustainability reporting frameworks, offers businesses the tools to navigate complex environmental challenges more effectively. As organizations increasingly prioritize sustainability, the insights provided by this initiative will likely drive a greater emphasis on nature-positive actions and contribute to a more environmentally responsible market.
