How Can Companies Integrate Biodiversity in Their Strategy in Challenging Times? How can companies successfully integrate biodiversity in their strategies, especially in times of change? This was the leading question at our first Dialogue Forum of the project UBi: Business & Biodiversity (Unternehmen Biologische Vielfalt) with around 200 participants from fields such as businesses and their associations, nature conservation, science, and politics. During the Dialogue Forum, which was held in June 2022, stakeholders committed to advocating and collaborating for a stronger focus on biodiversity in businesses. Businesses and other relevant actors agreed that more criteria and methods are needed in order to make the value of biodiversity visible, also in monetary terms. The UBi project will therefore offer a platform to raise awareness on the social and environmental importance of biodiversity and how that relates to businesses. Most importantly, the project aims to highlight the vital role of biodiversity for long-term successful businesses development and explore opportunities for companies when it comes to integrating biodiversity into their strategic planning. The project will focus around the following key areas: Integrating biodiversity into daily business The opportunities are great, not least because consumers, employees, and investors are increasingly demanding more commitment to biodiversity. The topic is coming into focus in corporate sustainability strategies, with pioneering companies already making biodiversity protection an integral part of their strategic planning. At the UBi Dialogue Forum, companies like Rewe, Symrise and Triodos presented their approaches. Supply chain, investment or ecosystem performance Company representatives from across industries (food, retail, commodity, transport, tourism, finance) discussed how to monetise measures when it comes to biodiversity protection in businesses. On the policy side, the European Union is increasingly taking biodiversity into account in regulatory frameworks. On the other hand, investors are becoming more aware that loss of biodiversity comes with significant costs. Speak one language A central part of the UBi project will be to find ways to simplify access to biodiversity measures so that more companies are enabled to step up. By building know-how and trust, the project aims to offer a platform to network, collaborate, and synergise. Activities for engagement The main starting points for companies can be: support for local nature conservation, plant areas with native plants, create links between ecosystems, change supply chains to biodiversity criteria. In UBi they have the opportunity to learn from the network about key possibilities. The UBi project is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Both are supported by the DLR as a project partner. The project runs until 2026. For further questions, please contact Ellen Land.