On behalf of the European Commission, NextGreen facilitates the EU Finance & Biodiversity Community, in which financial institutions collaborate on integrating biodiversity into their activities. 

Client European Commission (DG Environment)
Duration 2017 – present

On behalf of the European Commission, NextGreen facilitates the EU Finance & Biodiversity Community. In this community, financial institutions work together to integrate biodiversity into their activities. 

Context

Biodiversity is under pressure worldwide. Species are being lost due to pollution, and ecosystems are becoming unbalanced due to overexploitation. Because financial institutions influence biodiversity through their financing and investments, but are also dependent on it, they are identifying the risks. Within the EU Business & Biodiversity Platform set up by the European Commission (DG Environment), the Finance & Biodiversity Community is working with more than 50 financial institutions to reverse the loss of biodiversity.

The EU Business & Biodiversity Platform is coordinated by ICF, and NextGreen facilitates the Finance workstream within it, which consists of the F&B Community. Participants in the Finance & Biodiversity Community took the initiative to develop the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. With support from NextGreen and De Horde Advies, this financial sector collaboration has grown into the independent Finance for Biodiversity Foundation.

Objective

Strengthening biodiversity by:

• Sharing and promoting good practices among financial institutions
• Advancing insights with a broader network
• Dialogue with policymakers and the knowledge community on opportunities and bottlenecks

Process approach

NextGreen organizes (partly online) working sessions for the F&B Community on topics that participants consider important. We prepare meetings together with a number of participants. Every year, we organize a subgroup of around 8-12 participants who delve deeper into a topic they consider important. We produce publications and organize webinars on the results and insights. We do this partly in collaboration with related network organizations, the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, the PRI, and UNEP FI.

Services and activities

Organizing dialogue | Organizing innovation sessions | Starting and facilitating a Community of Practice (CoP) | Creating publications | Organizing webinars