Imagine if you could see exactly how buying a material in Europe affects a specific forest in Peru or a coastline in Tanzania. This work creates a digital map that tracks how trading non-food plants and marine life impacts nature's health. It's like a GPS for the environmental footprint of raw materials, helping companies avoid damaging the planet's life-support systems.
Companies struggle to quantify how their global trade of non-food biomass impacts biodiversity. This lack of data makes it impossible to set accurate science-based targets or avoid sourcing from ecologically damaged areas.
A hybrid multiregional input-output (MRIO) model and an online tool for tracking biodiversity impacts across land and sea.
If you are a retailer dealing with opaque raw material origins — this project developed an online tool that identifies biodiversity hotspots in your supply chain. This allows you to pinpoint where your sourcing causes the most harm and switch to better alternatives.
If you are a manufacturer dealing with the shift to bio-based inputs — this project developed a hybrid model that tracks flows of bio-based chemicals. You can use this to prove your products meet science-based targets for nature protection.
If you are a processor dealing with overexploitation of marine resources — this project developed specific metrics for seabed damage and ocean acidification. This helps you optimize sourcing to avoid contributing to a mass extinction.
Based on available project data, the models will be freely available on Zenodo, suggesting no direct purchase cost for the core data.
Yes, the project uses a multiregional input-output model to track global flows of raw and processed biomass, making it applicable to global trade networks.
The project intends to make its models freely available on Zenodo, indicating an open-access approach rather than restrictive licensing.
The project is developing an online tool designed to allow users to interact with the models easily, though specific API details are not provided.
The project period runs from 2022-09-01 to 2026-08-31, with the online tool being a key output for users.
The consortium is heavily academic, with 6 universities and 1 research institution out of 9 partners. However, it includes 1 industry partner and 1 SME, bringing a practical commercial perspective to the 8 countries involved. This balance suggests the project is grounded in high-level science but is being steered toward a usable tool for the private sector.
Contact NTNU in Norway for technical details on the MRIO model.
Contact us to find out how to integrate these biodiversity metrics into your ESG reporting.
