From Footprints to Handprints: Principles for Assessing an Organisation’s Positive Impacts on Biodiversity

Charlotte Maddinson , Essi Karoliina Pykäläinen , Sami El Geneidy, Ulla Helimo, Krista Pokkinen, Joseph W Bull, Janne Kotiaho

Organisations are increasingly acknowledging their responsibility to ‘bend the curve of biodiversity loss’ by reducing negative biodiversity impacts, often referred to as biodiversity footprints. A growing number of organisations are also interested in highlighting the positive impacts they have on biodiversity, driven by research, innovation and lobbying, for example. Limited guidance currently exists for how these positive impacts should be quantified, presenting a risk to organisations and biodiversity more widely. Building on the concept of carbon handprints, we introduce the concept of ‘biodiversity handprints’ as a framework to measure and communicate the positive contributions that organisations create for biodiversity. We establish ten guiding principles for assessing biodiversity handprints, building upon previous literature on environmental handprints and biodiversity offsetting. Overall, we propose that biodiversity handprints could be a useful tool for organisations to assess and report their positive impacts, albeit with large uncertainties. While biodiversity handprints may motivate and support progress towards global biodiversity goals, they must still accompany assessment and management of negative biodiversity impacts.