BI1: Biodiversity & Habitat

The intent of this indicator is to assess the entity’s measurement of impact on biodiversity wildlife and habitat. Impacts on biodiversity and habitat management may affect risks with respect to regulation, liabilities, or social license to operate.

Performance Tables

External Review

Select Yes or No: If selecting “Yes”, state whether the data submitted has been checked, verified, or assured (select one option; the most detailed level of scrutiny to which the data was subjected). If selecting ‘verified’ or ‘assured,’ select the standard from the dropdown menu.

The Scheme Lists page contains the complete list of accepted assurance and verification schemes.

GRESB does not require the selected standard to be specific to air pollution data. A standard initially designed to verify/assure other types of sustainability data (e.g., energy) can be selected as long as the same thoroughness and review criteria are applied to data reported in AP1.

Exceptions

Select Yes or No: GRESB is seeking to standardize the scope and boundaries of reporting to allow for more accurate benchmarking and to progressively move towards scoring of performance. If the scope of the data reported for this indicator does not exactly match the reporting scope (facilities, ancillary activities, and time period) as reported in “Entity and Reporting Characteristics” (EC3, RC3, RC4), then answer ‘No’ to this question and describe these exceptions in the “Exceptions” text box. Please note that if the entity answers 'No', then GRESB will not provide reporting-year performance data intensity values in the Benchmark Report.

Examples include:

• Temporal: toll road includes data on energy consumption from its street lighting within its boundary, but due to a data glitch, it lost this data for a two-month period during the reporting year.

• Physical: A power plant includes a switchyard facility within its reporting boundary but does not have data on water discharge for this facility.

• Operational: An airport includes the operation of mobile equipment within its reporting boundary, but not for aircraft, since these are operated by airlines.

Terminology

Externally checked

Applies to instances when a third party has reviewed the data in a structured and consistent process, but no official certification has been awarded.

Externally verified

Applies to instances where a third party has reviewed the reporting against an existing scheme. When this checkbox is ticked, participants must select the scheme name from the dropdown.

• Note that GRESB treats verification and assurance equally in the context of the assessment

Externally assured

Applies to instances where a third party has reviewed the data against an existing scheme. When this checkbox is ticked, participants should select the scheme name from the dropdown.

• Note that GRESB treats verification and assurance equally in the context of the assessment

Habitat

The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.

Habitat enhanced or restored

Disturbed habitat that is identified and improved for the benefit of native animal and plant species that occur there.

Habitat maintained

Habitat retained in its current condition through management practices, but excluding protection, enhancement or restoration. Examples of habitat maintenance are weeding and pest control.

Habitat protected

Habitat that is secured from impacts to prevent fragmentation, species extinction or reduction in range.

Habitat removed

Destruction, removal or displacement of natural habitat.

Threatened & Endangered (T&E) species

Animal and plant species that are either on the IUCN Red list, or have been designated as threatened, endangered, or protected, by local or national governments.

Wildlife

Organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans.

Wildlife fatalities

The death of wildlife occurring in the current reporting period due to impacts from, or in relation to, the asset.

Data: GRESB automatically validates data in the performance tables.

Evidence: Providing evidence of external review in the form of a third-party letter or certificate is optional. Evidence will not be subject to manual validation for this indicator in 2025.

Evidence should include:

• Proof of the existence of a third-party review of the data;

• Clear indication that the reviewed data reflects the reported data;

• A description of the type of third-party review (checked, verified, or assured) and the used assurance standard (if applicable);

• Proof that the data review applies to the entity.

Validation Basics

Materiality-Based Scoring

The relevance of the 'biodiversity & habitat' issue (determined by the GRESB Materiality Assessment) defines this indicator's maximum score.

Scoring of Metrics

The only scored metric for Biodiversity & Habitat is Net habitat gain.

For this metric, participants must complete all columns (“Reporting-year performance”, “Reporting-year target”, and “Future-year target”) to obtain points as follows:

• 60% of the indicator score: based on the reporting of a value in Reporting-year performance

• 20% of the indicator score: based on the reporting of a target in Reporting-year target

  • The scoring will be based on whether a target was set, not on whether the target was achieved.

• 20% of the indicator score will be based on the reporting of a target in Future-year target

  • The scoring will be based on whether a target was set, not on whether the entity is on track to achieve the target.

Notes

• Participants must input a target year under "Future-year target" as well as a numeric value in the underlying scored metric to score for this metric.

• Not all scored cells/metrics are mandatory. If a scored (light green) cell is not outlined in dark green, leaving it blank will still result in a negative scoring impact. This applies to the following metrics: Net habitat gain: Reporting-year target, Future-year target.

• Reporting of external data review and exceptions is not scored.

Scoring Basics

Eurostat - Critical Habitat: a concise summary

Eurostat - Environment GlossaryIntegrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool

IUCN - The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

IUCN - Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories

Natura 2000UNESCO World heritage sites

Key Biodiversity Areas ('KBAs')

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures Recommendations (TNFD) version 1.0 September 2023

Alignment with External Frameworks

GRI Standards 2016 - 304: Biodiversity

Relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation

6.6 By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

11.4 Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage

SDG 14 - Life Below Water

14.2 By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans

14.5 By 2020, conserve at least 10 percent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information

SDG 15 - Life on Land

15.1 By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements

15.2 By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally

15.3 By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world

15.4 By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development

15.5 Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species