What do businesses need to do about biodiversity (and who helps them)?
Nature has entered the reports: European companies must disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity. What this means in practice — and the work it generates.
The new development: nature on the balance sheet
After climate, biodiversity: European reporting rules require companies to assess and disclose how they depend on nature and how they impact it. This is not an abstract compliance requirement: it forces operational questions. Where does our water come from? Do our agricultural supply chains rely on healthy ecosystems? Do our sites border protected areas? For most companies, these are questions that have never been asked before — and that is exactly where the need for help arises.
Dependencies and impacts: the dual reading
The framework is read in two directions. Dependencies: what nature provides to the company (process water, agricultural raw materials, pollination upstream of supply chains, stability of the territories where it operates). Impacts: what the company does to nature (land consumption, emissions, water withdrawals, effects of supply chains). Laying them out transforms a vague topic into a map of risks and opportunities — and often reveals that the most critical dependency is where no one was looking.
From map to action
Reporting is the beginning, not the end. The typical actions that follow: reducing direct impacts (on soil, water, substances), working on supply chains (procurement criteria, projects with agricultural suppliers), regenerating (interventions on sites and territories: green spaces, soil, habitat), and supporting local projects where the company operates. The best actions share the same grammar as every impact project: declared objective, measurement, verification — never photo-opportunity tree planting without measured survival rates.
The work it generates
This question creates professions: those who know how to carry out dependency and impact assessments, those who design regeneration interventions, those who measure (ecologists, agronomists, analysts), those who connect businesses and local communities. On Simbial, this world has its own role — Impact Nature & Biodiversity Specialist — and projects where these skills are practised and demonstrated. It is a young field: those who enter now are building the experience that in a few years will be highly sought after.
The advantage of doing it well
Companies that approach biodiversity seriously gain more than compliance: more resilient supply chains, better relationships with local communities, credibility with banks and clients who have learned to tell the difference. And they have a natural ally in verifiable projects: an intervention with validated data is worth, in reporting and in reputation, ten statements of intent.
Frequently asked questions
What does European biodiversity reporting require?
To assess and disclose dependencies (what nature provides to the company) and impacts (what the company does to nature), with the same rigour as climate data.
What is a dependency on nature?
A natural service without which the activity suffers: process water, pollination in agricultural supply chains, hydrogeological stability of territories. Mapping them reveals risks that are often overlooked.
What jobs does the biodiversity topic create?
Impact and dependency assessments, regeneration intervention design, ecological measurement, supply chain management: on Simbial, this is the domain of the Impact Nature & Biodiversity Specialist.