The ESR is a structured method that helps corporate managers proactively develop strategies to manage business risks and opportunities arising from their company’s dependence and impact on ecosystems. It has been used by more than 300 companies and has resulted in voluntary, proactive, and strategic corporate ecosystem stewardship initiatives. It includes the excel-based Ecosystem Service Dependence and Impact Assessment Tool, for users to identify priority ecosystem services.
The Brazilian Business and Ecosystems Partnership collectively used the tool among 8 companies operating in the Brazilian Amazon, resulting in collaborative corporate landscape restoration strategies, expansion of biodiverse agroforestry systems, and strategies to adopt cleaner fuel technologies, among other strategies. Yves Rocher developed a sustainable procurement program for rare plants in Madagascar, and Mondi developed watershed restoration strategies in South Africa.
The tool helps companies identify a strong business case and devise effective plans for engaging in sustainability activities outside the "fenceline" of their operations. It systematically reviews the interconnections between corporate, local stakeholders', and policy makers' impacts upon common ecosystems. Managers have used the ESR to invest in, for example, upstream watershed management, providing cost-shares to raw materials suppliers, and payments for ecosystem services.
Suzanne Ozment, Associate - World Resources Institute
Businesses, Landscape Leader
