Ecosystems components and processes provide services that are critical for humans, overall human welfare and life. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has classified these services into 4 main categories: goods obtained form ecosystems (e.g. food and freshwater); regulating services (e.g. climate regulation); cultural services (e.g. recreation and tourism) and supporting services (e.g. nutrient cycling). Corporations affect ecosystems and the services they provide while at the same time depend on them. Ecosystems services are not yet assessed and valued, but damaged ecosystems pose different risks to companies and their supplier/clients in term of: increasing scarcity and costs of raw material, undermining the company brand and image, reducing the firm license to operate. At the same time linking ecosystem services to business offer new opportunities to companies. Key questions are:
• What are ecosystem services?
• How is the company contributing to ecosystem services degradation?
• How is ecosystem services degradation affecting your company performance?
May 20, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Eco-Services and Business: Implications for Environmental Strategy [4] | No Comments »
It is common practice for companies to identify potential environmental impacts however, this workshop asks us to view that impact from the perspective of companies that depend upon eco-services for business continuity.
Dr Pogutz uses several real-world references to illustrate the monetary value of ecological services that have previously been viewed as “free resources”.
The information covered served to analyze the main implication for business activities related to ecosystem degradation and to understand the business risks and opportunities related to ecosystem degradation.
As a means to control this degradation, integration into environmental management processes was proposed as a four step method including; evaluation of company dependence and eco-service impact, exploration trends in eco-services, identification of risks and opportunities for the company, and development of strategies.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Eco-Services and Business: Implications for Environmental Strategy [4] | No Comments »
Goldman, R.L., Thompson, B.H., & Daily, G.C. (16 May 2006). Institutional incentives for managing the landscape: Inducing the Cooperation for the production of ecosystem services. Cooperation for Ecological Economics, 64(2007) 333-343.
This article describes a model for agricultural landscapes to incorporate a system to conserve ecosystem resources. Where agricultural lands hold a high potential for diverse ecosystem services, it is important for land owners to adopt an environmental strategy in the form of a comprehensive protective system. Three levels of conservation that are covered are local services such as pollination, regional services such as water purification and flood control, and global services including carbon sequestration.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Eco-Services and Business: Implications for Environmental Strategy [4] | No Comments »
Tallis, H., Kareiva, P., Marvier, M., & Chang, A. (15 July 2008). An ecosystem services framework to support both practical conservation and economic development. PNAS, 105(28) 9457-9464.
This article focuses upon the premise that conservation and development projects should be able to achieve both ecological and social progress. This idea is a fundamental goal of an environmental manager where economic gains are paired with successful conservation measures. Projects that advance both conservation of Eco-Services and Social Development (or poverty alleviation) are classified as a “win-win” outcome but are not always identified, whereas the authors propose to create a global monitoring system to document both successes and failures.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Eco-Services and Business: Implications for Environmental Strategy [4] | No Comments »
Fisher, B., Turner, R.K., Morling, P. (10 May 07). Defining and classifying ecosystem services for decision making. Eological Economics, 68 (2009) 643-653.
The article illustrates the quantification of Eco Services which is the first step to realizing the importance of an environmental strategy. Without an agreed upon definition and classification system, there is no thorough way to measure Eco Service value, so, through several examples, the authors offer a definition of ecosystem services that is likely to be operational for ecosystem service research and several classification schemes.
