Pri-o-biodiv

Determining the ecological footprint of biodiversity-relevant products and services

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Is a concept and a concrete methodology for the ecological footprint of biodiversity-relevant products and services available? Is a hemeroby-based approach sufficiently "directionally sound" to be accepted as a benchmark for a biodiversity footprint? And what are the limits of such approaches?

The aim of the project is to develop a stand-alone Biodiversity Footprint (BF) to reveal biodiversity risks and opportunities from the use of different products and services, taking into account available preliminary work on the development of a biodiversity methodology in life cycle assessments. The topic of impacts on biodiversity due to human activities in the course of the production and use of products and services is to be addressed in a solid and comprehensive manner. The methodology of a BF to be developed should reflect the state of the art of LCA in this field and should deal with the methods of biodiversity assessment that are widely used in the field. The method is to be tested for practicability using illustrative case studies. The method and the results are to be communicated to the nature conservation as well as LCA and footprinting scene by means of expert workshops.