The BIOPATH journey begins!
Academic and industrial partners, representatives from the financial sector and public authorities at the Biopath kickoff at Lund University School of Economics and Management. Photo Kennet Ruona.
Most promising – the momentum! Most challenging – measures!
On 12-13 October 2022, the whole Mistra Biopath consortia came together to kick-off the four-year journey of joint research and innovation. Two days of informative and inspirational presentations about the programme setup, the three work packages, the three clusters and their challenges as well as interactive workshops and pitches to find common ground and the best approaches to the defined tasks.
BIOPATH board member, Susanne Bolin-Gärtner, Danske Bank and Susanne Arvidsson, Programme Director BIOPATH, Lund University School of Economics and Management.
Programme Director Susanne Arvidsson, Associate professor in Business Administration, welcomed all to Lund University School of Economics and Management, the host institution of the Biopath programme. The event was a cause to celebrate the many months of preparatory work but also to get started – to accelerate, to focus and take action.
Susanne Arvidsson was joined by the chair of the Board, Susanne Bolin Gärtner, Head of Fund and Manager Selection, Danske Bank in setting the spirit of co-creation and collaboration across sectors and exchanging ideas and challenges from academia, industry, financial sector and public authorities. The first day focussed on overviews of the three work packages and insights from three keynote speakers.
Measuring biodiversity loss and its consequences
What is biodiversity? The first work package, led by Henrik Smith (LU) and Allison Perrigo (GU), started out with a short definition: Biodiversity is… the variability among living organisms... this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. Measuring biodiversity on the various scales from landscape to ecosystem, to species and genetics can also be conducted from the view of composition, structure and function – so no single indicator such as CO2.
Mapping the current metrics, methods and tools used to account for biodiversity impacts is a key task and provide a guide to usability. Developing data-driven approaches to integrate biodiversity into financial decisions is another expected outcome. Using machine learning on various data sets promises to link impact, land-use and biodiversity. Industrial partner leads represent Södra Skogsägarna, Kraftringen Energi and Arla Foods.
Mapping and assessing biodiversity-related risks for industry and the financial system
The second work package, led by Susanne Arvidsson (LU) and Viktor Elliot (GU), will use innovative approaches to leverage the transformative power of the financial system for the benefit of biodiversity protection and society at large. The methods, metrics, and tools will be tested with selected partners to ensure usability including compliance with existing regulatory requirements, operational efficiency, and scalability.
These approaches will also be tailored to and tested in a wider context to analyse the financial performance of investments that promote biodiversity, whether portfolios can be altered to reduce nature-based risks/impact at low cost to return, and whether these investments have a de facto positive impact on biodiversity or only a reduced negative impact. Industrial partner leads represent Handelsbanken, Vattenfall and Stora Enso.
Mainstreaming biodiversity through governance innovations
The third work package, led by Nils Droste (LU) and Lena Gipperth (GU) seek to improve the informational basis for public regulation and will monitor market-based approaches for biodiversity. In various ways, the group will map and asses the financial system governance, innovate and develop, test and transform it in Biopath Policy Labs. These policy labs will constitute co-creative spaces in which experiences from the markets, the regulators, and science will come together and jointly identify gaps and innovate solutions to improve the overall system performance to protect biodiversity. The most promising solutions will be pilots tested through either imaginative scenario planning or experimental applications that pave the ground for larger scale transformations. Industrial leads represent the European Investment Bank and the Swedish Forest Agency.
How to make the finance sector face up to the biodiversity crisis
In his keynote, board member Matt Jones, Head of Nature Economy at UN Environmental Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre, stated that nature is under pressure, that this also means business risks and that the window of opportunity for changing this development is closing. What to do?
He proposed to start by getting the narrative right. The the whole economy, including the financial institutions depend on nature, in one way or another. This needs to be common ground. Nature loss is creating business risk. It is urgent that more businesses are guided to start the journey towards changing resource use and bridge the gap between the different timescales of nature and of finance. The short time horizons over which Return on Investment can be expected don’t match the time horizons seen in nature, i.e., the time it takes an ecosystem to be restored or to regenerate.
© IIASA Credit: Adam Islaam | IIASA
Aligning financial flows with biodiversity objectives
Eva Mayerhofer, Head of Environmental Policy Unit and Lead Biodiversity Specialist, European Investment Bank, emphasized that analysis, assessment, and policy actions should reflect the fact that nature, the economy and finance are interconnected and interdependent. She further stated that it is critical that both public and private institutions work together, innovating to create mutually beneficial change that is aligned with what society at large requires.
It is only a combination of inclusivity, focus and collaboration between wider society and governments, central banks, regulators, and individual financial institutions that can affect a global transition to a net-zero and nature-positive economy that benefits all people and planet.
When does disclosure (regulation) feed into decision making?
Board member Jan Bebbington, Director of the Pentland Center for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University provided an overview of corporate disclosure and regulating via disclosure. She asked rhetorically: What is reporting good for – at its best? Well, transparency is the first step towards accountability. Organisations need a traceability of their activities and across their supply chains. To be able to build capability, to be able to make plans and decisions based on robust information it helps to understand current and future trends and integrate global datasets with the issues of concern.
Crash course on transdisciplinary research and speed dating
To condlude the first day, Marie Stenseke, GU and Johanna Alkan Olsson, LU, leaders of the Co-Creation Task Force, presented how they will work across all the work packages and support the steering agenda of BIOPATH. They introduced a crash course on transdisciplinary research, on how to integrate scientific knowledge with knowledge domains outside academia. Everyone was activated in lively speed dating sessions providing face-to-face exchange of expectations! The journey has begun.
All photos: Kennet Ruona
Abbreviations: LU - Lund University GU - University of Gothenburg.