Developing & piloting biodiversity footprinting & natural capital accounting via a 'beehive' of sectoral hubs, for sustainable transition to a circular EU bioeconomy

Biodiversity is the true driving force of a sustainable, circular bioeconomy (CBE). While the CBE needs advanced technology and innovation to succeed, biodiversity determines the capacity of biological systems to adapt and evolve. For this reason, biodiversity considerations need to be reflected in economic practices and valuation. CircHive will measure and integrate the value of nature into public and business decision making by: 1) improving data availability, accessibility, and harmonisation; 2) developing a standardised method for biodiversity footprinting (BF) and integrating it with natural capital accounting (NCA); 3) mainstreaming the use of BF and NCA in public and private decision making, incl. improving disclosure, risk management, and investment practice; 4) testing and improving the developed methods and models; and 5) building a wider community ‘BEEHive’ for peer support and exploitation of results. A strong emphasis is put developing scientifically robust and standardised methods that bridge BF (life cycle analyses) and NCA (bookkeeping), given their multiple overlaps but also divergences that hinder operationalisation and uptake. An equally strong emphasis is placed on practice-testing to understand current practices and opportunities for further mainstreaming of biodiversity and natural capital into disclosure, ecolabelling, and investment decisions. Transitioning theory to practice is put to the test via a case study network who will apply different biodiversity-centric approaches in real life. This is carried out in sectoral case study hubs (industry, retailers, investors, cities) for peer learning and capacity building. In CircHive’s approach, CBE and biodiversity reinforce each other as a basis for resources and inspiration for sustainable business practices. The integration of the value of nature into public and business decisions, will benefit both the protection of ecosystems and their services and the profitability of sustainable businesses.