A year after releasing its biodiversity roadmap, BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) has published the first results of its research to determine the biodiversity footprint of its investments, following a collaboration with Iceberg Data Lab and I Care & Consult.

Iceberg Data Lab and I Care & Consult were selected in 2020 following a competitive tender process launched by BNPP AM and three other asset managers, with the collaboration enabling the development of a tool to identify and quantify the potential negative biodiversity impacts of portfolio companies.

BNPP AM carried out this analysis based on the Corporate Biodiversity Footprint methodology, which covers more than 1,800 companies included in its equity and bond funds, equating to 70% of its corporate assets under management.

Each environmental pressure (land use, air and water pollution, and climate change) is translated into a quantified biodiversity impact, then aggregated to calculate the biodiversity footprint of each company, expressed in km² mean species abundance (MSA). The asset manager’s biodiversity footprint is estimated to be around -8,000 km² MSA, meaning that its investments potentially maintain a fully degraded area equivalent to five times the size of London each year.

The publication of this research also forms part of the implementation of Article 29 of the French Law on Energy and Climate on June 30 2022, which extends the reporting requirements for climate risks to those related to biodiversity loss.

Robert-Alexandre Poujade, BNPP AM’s ESG analyst and biodiversity lead, says: “These initial results allow us to continue to improve our knowledge and provide as much transparency as possible on our environmental impacts.”