All Articles About Ecosystem Services

Report: Measuring Corporate Impact on Ecosystems: A Comprehensive Review of New Tools

Linda Hwang, Former Manager, Research; Sissel Waage, Director, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Kit Armstrong, Senior Advisor, BSR

Learn how to integrate new ecosystem services into your corporate planning and daily decision-making. This report on ecosystem services—the collective benefits provided by a community of animals and plants interacting with one another and with their physical environment, such as clean water and pollination of plants—allows you to compare the various tools that measure and assess the value of ecosystem services. Read more →

Posted: December 28, 2008 | Topics: Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Land Use & Biodiversity, Water | Download (PDF)

Report: The New Markets for Environmental Services: A Corporate Manager's Resource Guide to Trading in Air, Climate, Water and Biodiversity Assets

Sissel Waage, Director, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

The natural environment provides society with essential services—such as clean air and reliable flows of clean water—which are increasingly being valued in financial terms. Environmental markets— some regulatory and others voluntary—are now trading credits as well as derivatives. Regulatory environmental markets are operating in Europe, the U.S., Australia and other countries around the world. Voluntary markets and business-to-business “payments for environmental services” (PES) deals are also underway, in both industrialized and developing countries. These markets and transactions are sending price signals about environmental values. The result is that businesses can place a financial value not only on environmental compliance, but also increasingly on voluntary actions. Read more →

Posted: December 28, 2007 | Topics: Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Land Use & Biodiversity, Water | Download (PDF)

Report: Environmental Markets, Executive Briefing

Sissel Waage, Director, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

A shift is occurring in how environmental issues are understood and what corporate environmental expectations exist. The current focus on incremental improvements and discrete issues is becoming outmoded. Key regulators’ and stakeholders’ approaches to environmental issues are broadening to include the overall function of ecological systems as well as the application of market-based of incentives for environmental performance. Read more →

Posted: October 10, 2007 | Topics: Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Land Use & Biodiversity, Water | Download (PDF)

Report: Dipping Their Toes In

Sissel Waage, Director, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Emma Stewart

Some see carbon as merely the first of a whole range of markets for ecosystem services. But, as Sissel Waage and Emma Stewart found, the corporate world is approaching with caution Read more →

Posted: May 1, 2007 | Topics: Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Land Use & Biodiversity, Water | Download (PDF)

Report: Environmental Markets: Opportunities & Risks for Business

A shift is occurring in how environmental issues are understood and what corporate environmental expectations exist. The current focus on incremental improvements and discrete issues is becoming outmoded. Key regulators’ and stakeholders’ approaches to environmental issues are broadening to include the overall function of ecological systems as well as the application of market-based of incentives for environmental performance. Read more →

Posted: July 10, 2006 | Topics: Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Land Use & Biodiversity, Water | Download (PDF)