BS 8583:2015 Biodiversity — Guidance for businesses on managing the opportunities and risks
With the UK now committed to halting overall loss of biodiversity by 2020, in line with the European Biodiversity Strategy and UN Aichi targets, there is a growing need for businesses to report their biodiversity impacts, dependencies and responses. Yet there has been no guidance on biodiversity in any of the formal standards on sustainable development, social responsibility or environmental management.
We have now developed BS 8583 to fill the gap and provide guidance on biodiversity issues for different types of organization. BS 8583 will help organizations to incorporate biodiversity considerations into their day-to-day management systems in a way that enables them to protect and enhance biodiversity through their regular operations
The new standard:
- Explains what biodiversity is and why it is relevant to businesses and other organizations
- Describes how to assess your biodiversity impact
- Explores ways to manage biodiversity, for example through supply-chain and land management
- Gives advice on planning for biodiversity protection and enhancement
The new standard describes a four-step process to enable immediate improvements in biodiversity, and provides examples of biodiversity opportunities and risks, all in the context of global, national and local targets for biodiversity, and UK policies and initiatives.
It is aimed at organizations seeking to manage their biodiversity impact for business benefit and should be obligatory reading for corporate compliance officers, chief sustainability officers and social responsibility leaders. It should also be of particular interest to anyone who has bought BS EN ISO 14001, BS ISO 26000 or the BS 8900 series.