Biodiversity footprints are a step toward planetary wellbeing
The University of Jyväskylä has become an international leader in biodiversity footprint assessment through its biodiversity footprint studies. Researchers at JYU.Wisdom, the University’s multidisciplinary resource wisdom community, have developed open-source models and tools for biodiversity footprint calculation that companies, cities and other organisations can use to assess their environmental impacts.
Researchers at the University, in collaboration with organisations such as S Group, SRV, the City of Tampere, and the City of Espoo, have developed calculation methods and at the same time calculated the global biodiversity footprint associated with these organisations’ value chains.
Biodiversity footprint reveals impacts and guides society toward responsible actions
The biodiversity footprint is a metric used to assess the impacts of human activities on other organisms and ecosystems. At the core of the calculation is an understanding of how and where biodiversity impacts arise. The results can be used to set targets and design evidence-based means to reduce the impacts.
Many organisations and companies have taken the initiative to join collaborative research and development efforts to better understand their impacts and make their operations more responsible.
“All businesses and other organisations are both dependent on and affected by nature,” says Janne Kotiaho, Director of the University of Jyväskylä’s resource wisdom community JYU.Wisdom and Professor of Ecology. “Their environmental impacts are not limited to their own local activities but extend across global value chains.”
“Biodiversity loss is no longer purely an environmental or corporate responsibility issue, as it’s now clear that companies can’t manage the nature-related risks to their business without understanding their own environmental impacts.”
Organisations waking up to change
The developers of the biodiversity footprint indicator aim for biodiversity footprint assessment and the reduction of identified impacts to become a normal part of societal structures and decision-making.
“To ensure the calculation is as cross-sectoral, impactful, and accurate as possible, actors from sectors such as food, transport, and energy need to be involved in research and development,” says researcher Sami El Geneidy, who leads the Biodiversity Footprint Team, a research group at the University of Jyväskylä.
The banking sector, in particular, has significant opportunities to influence society at large through its financing conditions, and therefore tools developed to support nature risk assessment can have a considerable global impact in combating biodiversity loss.”
The first Finnish companies have already begun monitoring their biodiversity footprints, which has led to tangible changes. Operating practices have been refined, decision-making has been guided in a more sustainable direction, and impacts are now being monitored from both environmental and business profitability perspectives.
“I’ve noticed a positive energy building, and organisations are finally ready to make a change,” says El Geneidy. “Yet more concrete actions are still needed, and it’s the bold pioneers who are now leading the way.”
Professor of Practice Kaisa Mustajärvi promotes sustainability work
Professor of Practice Kaisa Mustajärvi, affiliated with the University of Jyväskylä’s Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and the resource wisdom community JYU.Wisdom, works to develop and mainstream environmental and biodiversity impact assessment. Mustajärvi has a PhD in ecology and environmental management and is an alum of the University of Jyväskylä. She works as development manager in the Climate and Environmental Policy Unit of the City of Tampere. Her job is to support the City’s various departments in line with its environmental and climate goals.
“My work is focused on embedding the principles of sustainable development into the city’s decision-making and everyday life,” says Professor of Practice Kaisa Mustajärvi. “I aim to develop solutions that support the wellbeing of nature and the sustainable future of the city.”
On nature’s terms for nature’s sake
Kaisa Mustajärvi is known for looking at nature and sustainability issues in their entirety. She describes herself as working on behalf of nature itself. Her client is neither an organisation nor a municipality, but the ecosystem formed by nature and people, with shared wellbeing at its core.
“For me, climate change and biodiversity loss are merely symptoms of a deeper problem, including overconsumption and the tendency to overlook nature’s carrying capacity in decision-making,” says Mustajärvi. “The decisions should aim for planetary wellbeing, which is the shared wellbeing of humans and nature.”
Biodiversity footprint helps us see what is often hidden
In recent years, Mustajärvi has focused particularly on the biodiversity footprint assessment and its development in Tampere. The footprint, she feels, is an important tool because it reveals effects that can’t be seen by looking only within the boundaries of a municipality or organisation.
“We impact nature all over the world through food, construction, and supply chains,” says Mustajärvi. “The biodiversity footprint makes these effects scientifically visible and measurable. It provides a completely new perspective on sustainability work, which has for too long relied too heavily on qualitative assessments.”
Bringing research results closer to decision-makers
The world is changing rapidly, but environmental changes often become visible only after a delay of several years. That’s why the research findings that support decision-making should circulate more quickly and more widely than they do currently.
Cooperation between researchers and end-users of information needs to become closer and more transparent,” explains Mustajärvi. “Environmental impacts must be presented in a way that leads to concrete actions, not just reporting.”
Mustajärvi aims to make complex environmental phenomena understandable so that decision-makers can clearly see where impacts begin and where they actually lead. But knowledge alone isn’t enough unless it’s applied in time.
“We already have a lot of knowledge,” says Mustajärvi. “It’s essential now to make use of it before problems get bigger.”
Toward a more comprehensive evaluation of environmental impacts
Mustajärvi wants to develop environmental impact assessments that incorporate both European-based calculations and quantitative assessments, while enabling clearer planning of measures and more precise monitoring of their effectiveness. She believes that the application and monitoring of the method’s results should be discussed in good time before they become mandatory for organisations.
In addition, she emphasises that chains of influence must be viewed as a whole, not as isolated parts. Strengthening the common language and understanding between the business and public sectors is key to this.
“The different perspectives of sustainability work, such as the fragmentation and siloing of nature, climate, and the circular economy, present a challenge to advancing and finding effective solutions,” says Mustajärvi. “The biodiversity footprint offers us an opportunity to explore these issues from a fresh, comprehensive perspective.”
Environmental impact assessments can be easily started
Open-source tools and guides are already available, making it possible to get started without being an expert. This lowers the barrier to take action and explore one’s own environmental impacts.
What matters most is taking the first step, because the only real risk is doing nothing,” explain El Geneidy and Mustajärvi.
The development of the biodiversity footprint has been funded by, among others, S Group, the City of Tampere, Nordea, and Innovation Fund Sitra as well as by the Strategic Research Council of the Research Council of Finland in the project BOOST. The development of the BIOVALENT database has also been funded by Ecobio.
