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. The BSI have developed BS 8583 to provide guidance on biodiversity issues for different types of organizations.
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; describes a four-step process to enable immediate improvements in biodiversity; and provides examples of biodiversity opportunities and risks, in the context of global, national and local targets for biodiversity, and UK policies and initiatives.
BS 8583 is aimed at organizations seeking to manage their biodiversity impact for business benefit and should be of particular interest to corporate compliance officers, chief sustainability officers and social responsibility leaders, as well as anyone who has bought BS EN ISO 14001, BS ISO 26000 or the BS 8900 series.
You can read about and buy the full standard here.