Sustain

01/01/2022 -

31/12/2026

International, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

2024 – 2025 BiodivTransform

Topics: biological sciences, computer and information sciences, databases, ecology, ecosystems, natural sciences

Our global economy is intrinsically dependent on nature, and at the same time is playing a major role in its degradation.

Context

To reverse biodiversity loss and achieve nature-positive outcomes, it is necessary for countries worldwide to adopt transformative and system-wide changes in all sectors, including the economy and business. Our global economy is dependent on nature. It also plays a big role in its degradation. With this in mind, the EU-funded SUSTAIN project will bring together a multi-stakeholder and multidisciplinary team to create a database of business dependencies and impacts. It will develop methods to reduce biodiversity-related risks, and a toolbox to support their application. By drawing on existing networks and expertise, the consortium will drive uptake of these resources through dissemination of targeted business case materials.

Main objectives

The SUSTAIN (Strengthening Understanding and Strategies of Business to Assess and Integrate Nature) project provided businesses, financial institutions, and regulatory bodies with the knowledge and resources to better understand, assess, and monitor the dependencies and impacts on nature from activities across different sectors of the economy. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, the project brought together leading experts in ecology, conservation, economics, and social sciences to pursue five interrelated goals: to expand the knowledge base on how economic activities impact biodiversity and ecosystem services; to develop methods for reducing related risks through innovative research and modelling; to build a practical toolbox for businesses and financial institutions; to develop and disseminate business case materials; and to engage key stakeholders from the business, finance, regulatory, and intergovernmental spheres.

Main results

The project ran for 3.5 years with the ambition to facilitate transformative changes within the global economy to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. Among its key outputs, SUSTAIN produced three dedicated sectoral deep-dive reports tailored separately for businesses, financial institutions, and regulatory bodies. The project also published six quarterly newsletters throughout its lifetime, and developed a suite of practical tools and case studies to support nature assessment and decision-making. All project reports and documents produced through the collaborative efforts of the partner consortium are publicly available on the Capitals Coalition website.

Sustain

Context

Main objectives

Main results

Website and resources

We use cookies