ACT Biodiversity

Every year, ecosystems provide services estimated to be worth more than €41,000 billion (around half of global GDP) (WEF, 2020), even though the total number of wild mammals, measured in biomass, has fallen by 82% compared with historical data (IPBES, 2019).

There is therefore a real urgency to provide companies with a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of their biodiversity strategy in order to halt the decline in biodiversity.

Objectives of the methodology

Aware of the lack of maturity of companies on the subject of biodiversity and the need to develop a framework to evaluate the robustness and reliability of the transition plans that will be carried out thanks to the CSRD, the ACT initiative has decided to develop a methodological framework adapted to biodiversity in order to be able to carry out a multifactorial analysis of the transition of companies.

Next steps

The first working group meeting was held on March 12th at ADEME’s offices in Montrouge. The next meeting will take place in June.

Outgoings

December 2024

Release of the methodological draft

March 2025

Opening of the public consultation

November 2025

Release of the complete methodology with road test and presentation at COP30

The methodology

This method will assess the progressiveness of a company and its value chain towards a biodiversity-friendly economy as well as the credibility and effectiveness of the actions taken to minimize impacts on biodiversity.

Like the ACT Climate Assessment methodologies, ACT Biodiversity will assess companies that have already developed a strategy or transition plan in favor of biodiversity and therefore already know their impacts and dependencies relating to it.

The methodology is co-developed with the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), in synergy with their “Companies Committed to Nature” (EEN) program. There will therefore be joint intellectual property of the method between ADEME and the OFB.

Programme EEN
ACT Biodiversity is a method:

A scientific and technical committee, co-led by ADEME and the OFB and composed of experts in the field, will meet every three months throughout the methodological development phase. The committee’s goal is to develop a method supported by several specialized stakeholders, consistent with existing methods and systems.

Ultimately, this method will be fully integrated into the ACT Evaluation process, and a company will be able to jointly assess the “Carbon” and “Biodiversity” aspects of its strategy using ACT.

For more information, contact anatole.metais-grollier@ademe.fr

  • Ambitious: It provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating companies’ biodiversity strategies
  • Current: It is designed to align as closely as possible with the expectations of the newly established CSRD
  • Field-level: The input data is real data and the data provided as part of the CSRD
  • Scientific: It uses SBTN targets to set the company’s objectives
  • Generic, with dedicated weightings and indicators for the four most impactful sectors: agriculture, chemicals, construction, and energy
  • Aligned: it answers the five founding questions of ACT Evaluation
  • Comprehensive: it is based on the nine historical modules of ACT Evaluation
  • Evaluative: it provides a three-step score, which can be used to compare companies with other companies in its sector

Le process

September – November 2023State of the art – Literature searches
December 2023 – february 2024Definition of the methodological framework
March – december 2024Drafting the method
September – december 2024Exchanges with companies
December 2024Release of the 1st version draft
1st half of 2025Method road test
2nd half of 2025Finalisation of the method, release of the final version
2026Integrating biodiversity into the ACT step-by-step method

Our partners

Co-development and intellectual co-ownership of the method.

Scientific and Technical Committee.

Participation in discussions on methodological development.