Resources

Below is a collection of reports and project outputs developed by the CircHive team. Some of the resources are still in draft but they are all publicly available to download. Please get in touch if you have any comments or feedback on any of these resources.


The Ideal Framework for Food & Biodiversity – A Guide for Standards and Sourcing Rules

Food standards are one of the key tools used by food companies to ensure a certain level of quality and sustainability in agricultural production. In addition, many companies have their own procurement requirements. Integrating robust biodiversity criteria into these standards and sourcing rules is an effective way to strengthen biodiversity protection and enhancement within the food sector.

The Ideal Framework for Food & Biodiversity is not a new certification standard. Instead, it serves as a practical guide for standard organizations and food companies with their own sourcing policies, helping them to effectively and comprehensively integrate biodiversity considerations. Farmers' cooperatives and associations within the food sector can also use the framework as a reference to promote more biodiversity-friendly agricultural practices. Furthermore, policymakers are encouraged to incorporate its recommendations into funding programs and agricultural subsidy requirements.

Developed within CircHive, the Ideal Framework has been created in collaboration with scientists, NGOs, and representatives from standard organizations. Its implementation helps protect existing biodiversity on agricultural land, creates opportunities for new habitats and species, and minimizes negative impacts of agricultural practices on biodiversity—aligning with the principles of best agricultural practice. By adopting this framework, stakeholders can make a meaningful contribution to halting the dramatic loss of biodiversity and preserving essential ecosystem services.

D1.1│Biodiversity Databases

The goal of this report is to define key definitions and concepts around biodiversity, report on the existing data and databases of relevance for biodiversity and natural capital accounting, synthesise findings provide guidance for use of a spreadsheet containing databases and provide general guidance and recommendations .

D5.4│Standardization landscape

This document gives an Overview on existing standards and standardization activities in the field of biodiversity footprinting and natural capital accounting. This overview of the standardization landscape creates the basis for the development of the further standardization strategy for the CircHive project.

D3.1.3│Review uptake of EU Taxonomy and substantial BD contribution, reporting practice under CSRD and green investment practice. Development of BD-centric investment criteria based on learnings

This document explores the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and outlines the contributions to the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance in the areas of natural capital throughout 2023 and 2024.

D3.1.1│Review and recommendations for existing and upcoming corporate NC & BD reporting standards

The goal of this report is to review the landscape of current and upcoming ESG market practice around biodiversity (BD) and natural capital in order to inform CircHive data and method needs and steer project development.

D2.1│Synthesizing landscape of approaches for natural capital accounting & biodiversity footprinting for private & public sectors

The report is divided into six main chapters. The report starts with three background chapters, providing the reader an overview of terms and definitions, followed by current biodiversity trends in the business environment, and initiatives in the field of NCA and BF.

In the next sections, we present the results from CircHive’s methods mapping (reviewing existing methods for BF and NCA), and tool screening (screening existing tools related to biodiversity assessments), and finally we present results from the surveys and interviews with our case study partners.

D3.4│Review and recommendations for mainstreaming of biodiversity in EU policy

This report is the first draft of a living document that will be updated throughout the CircHive project.

The purpose of the report is to identify policy opportunities for the CircHive project to influence and help develop policy and legislation that determine how and why companies measure and report their impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities in relation to biodiversity and ecosystem services.

D3.1.2│Review of inclusion of NC & BD criteria in labelling and certification schemes, development of “ideal framework”

This report focuses on voluntary standards and makes a review of their criteria with regards to biodiversity. It forms an integral part of Deliverable 3.1: Living review and recommendations for mainstreaming BD in ESG (1st version).