Business Roundtable: Business perspectives on biodiversity challenges
Guy Corcelle, Deputy Head of Unit for Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Competitiveness, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission, chaired the business roundtable on Tuesday 13 November at the High Level Conference on Business and Biodiversity being held in Lisbon, Portugal. Panelists introduced their respective businesses, underscoring their commitment to biodiversity.
Noting three areas of future work as being: biofuels; regulation and decision making; and ecosystem services, Richard Sykes, Executive Secretary, IPIECA – the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association, said that “businesses like certainty and need clear signals on markets and prices”. He also drew attention to initiatives linking the business and conservation communities, such as Project Proteus with UNEP-WCMC and the Shell-IUCN Partnership.
IPIECA is the single global association representing both the upstream and downstream oil and gas industry on key global environmental and social issues. It was created in 1974 following the establishment of UNEP and provides one of the industry’s principal channels of communication with the United Nations.
“Concrete is the second most consumed produce after water,” noted Bernard Küng, Area Manager Western Europe, Holcim, noting that raw materials and also energy are needed in production processes. He underscored the need to choose locations carefully, improving operations in existing sites and returning used sites to nature.
Holcim is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates (crushed stone, sand and gravel) as well as further activities such as ready-mix concrete and asphalt including services. The Group holds majority and minority interests in more than 70 countries on all continents, and employs some 90,000 people.
Discussing current trends in cereal production and prices, Jacques du Puy, Executive Committee Member of Bayer CropScience, Head of Europe, Middle-East & Africa, noted that two kilos of grain are needed to produce one kilo of poultry meat. He noted that increasing crop production over the next decades to match demand could impact on biodiversity. He defined good farming practices and the use of knowledge and technology in integrated crop management, and called for more science and certification schemes.
Bayer CropScience is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology, offering a range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications.
The Portucel Soporcel Group occupies a leading position in the international pulp and paper market and as such is one of Portugal’s strongest world brands. It is one of the five largest producers of uncoated woodfree papers in Europe. José Honório, CEO, Portucel Soporcel noted that the company had joined WBCSD and was looking at fine-tuning its management practices. “We use natural resources that we need to preserve,” he noted. Honório called for the EU to make a level playing field, addressing trade issues beyond its border, through the likes of the World Trade Organization.
“Awareness, expertise, commitment all take time to establish,” noted Jean-Claude Steffens, Senior Executive Vice President, SUEZ SA, underscoring the company’s approach to biodiversity through time. He noted that there was no “one size fits all” solution to environmental issues and called for a policy formulation enforceable in a decentralized group and business-oriented indicators to measure and communicate actions taken.
SUEZ, an international industrial and services group, designs sustainable and innovative solutions in the management of public utilities as a partner of public authorities, businesses and individuals. SUEZ aims to answer essential needs in electricity, natural gas, energy services, water and waste management.
Antonio Mexia, CEO of Energias de Portugal (EDP), described the company’s investments in wind and hydro power. He drew attention to legal and reputational risk linked to public opinion. He underscored that: biodiversity should be integrated in business discussions; opportunity costs of different alternatives should be highlighted; the EU needs to consider environment and energy “horizontally”. “Today we are talking about getting a better world and getting a better business,” he concluded.
EDP’s principal activities are the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electrical energy. The group’s operations include rendering specialist engineering services, development and implementation of information technology products and equipment, real estate, reinsurance and telecommunications. It also operates in the international market: in Spain, the Group operates in the electricity and gas sector and in Brazil is present in the electricity sector.
Environmental management in Nokia is based on life-cycle thinking; “we choose environmentally-friendly materials, optimized recyclability, voluntary take back programmes, and reduced packaging,” said Kirsi Sormunen, Vice President and Head of Environmental Affairs, Nokia Corporation. She discussed the value of environmental impact assessments and urged the EU to look into international environmental requirements.
Nokia is the world’s leading mobile phone supplier and a supplier of mobile and fixed telecom networks including related customer services. Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational, focused on the key growth areas of wired and wireless telecommunications.
“We need business management systems that will reward the good guys and penalise the others,” Simon Brooks, Vice President, European Investment Bank (EIB), seeing biodiversity as only a commodity will not be enough to save it, he noted. Brooks noted the value of partnerships and emphasized that biodiversity is a key issue for their clients.
The European Investment Bank is the EU’s financing institution and was established under the Treaty of Rome (1957) to provide financing for capital investment furthering European Union policy objectives, in particular regional development, Trans-European Networks of transport, telecommunications and energy, research, development and innovation, environmental improvement and protection, health and education.
Discussions revolved around: partnerships; creating new goods and products based on biodiversity; the need for environmental education and drawing knowledge in from different sources; ensuring biodiversity conservation generates revenue.
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This summary of the plenary session held on Tuesday 13 November 2007 during the High Level Conference on Business and Biodiversity taking place at Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, is produced by the Countdown 2010 Secretariat.
