Master students at the Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics in Sweden have published a study investigating what drives companies to voluntarily chose to biodiversity net gain (BNG) strategies in the absence of legislation that requires them to do so. The study analyses business documentation and interviews with business leaders from the seven companies in Sweden most proactive in the BNG field, and it identifies the business case for biodiversity.

BNG strategy is defined by the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme as “a goal for a development project, policy, plan or activity in which the impacts on biodiversity it causes are outweighed by measures taken to avoid and minimise the impacts, to undertake on-site restoration and finally to offset the residual impacts, to the extent that the gain exceeds the loss.”

The results of the study show that cost and cost reduction, risk and risk reduction, sales and profit margin, reputation and brand value, attractiveness as employer, innovative capabilities, stakeholders and health and well-being of future society are the key drives for companies to adopt a BNG strategy.

The full study is available here.