The LEAP Nature Risk Assessment Approach: E1: Identification of relevant environmental assets and ecosystem services by priority location
E1: Identification of relevant environmental assets and ecosystem services by priority location
Guiding Question: What is the nature of our business processes and activities at each priority location? What environmental assets and ecosystem services do we have a dependency or impact on at each priority location?
Identify the specific relevant environmental assets and ecosystem services
Organisations will have an in depth understanding of their business operations at each location where they have direct operations. For LEAP assessments that include the consideration of upstream and downstream locations of significance (identified in the Locate phase), it may be necessary to speak to suppliers and customers to have a deeper understanding of their business operations in those identified locations and identify the environmental assets and ecosystem services that determine the nature-related dependencies and nature impacts of relevance to the organisation.
The lists of environmental assets and ecosystem services outlined in the tables below provide a starting point for this analysis, although each specific location will have its unique characteristics and relevance to the specific business processes of the organisation. The following tables provide a summary list of types of environmental asset and ecosystem services with links to further contextual information for each, based on the UN SEEA Ecosystem Accounting and IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology.
Using these lists as a guide and based on discussions with line/site managers, suppliers (upstream) and customers (downstream), analysts working their way through the LEAP approach might want to create a simple checklist of relevant environmental assets and ecosystem services at each location being evaluated.
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