2023 Winter Issue - 59

INFRASTRUCTURE
" The investor space is pretty active in asking
us what we're doing on biodiversity. The
conversation has turned from 'What are you
doing in the carbon space?' to 'What are you
doing in the biodiversity space?' "
-Darryl Stuckey, Lendlease
ery lost during construction, the city intends to triple
its total square footage of green walls and rooftop
greenery by 2030.
There are sticks as well, which are also helping to
keep builders focused on their carbon footprint. The
Biodiversity Net Gain regulation, for instance, that
will soon be going into effect in the United Kingdom
requires developers to make a 10 percent net gain
in biodiversity as a condition of obtaining planning
approval in all new developments across England
and Wales. Many cities, too, from Malmö, Sweden,
to Seattle, Washington, have green space ratios that
cannot be ignored.
New voluntary biodiversity disclosure frameworks
that resemble carbon disclosure frameworks are also
on the way. Two of the most popular are the Taskforce
on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and
Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN). While these
bioversity disclosure frameworks are technically voluntary,
the report suggests that not filling them out
may become increasingly expensive for anyone trying
to sell to institutional investors.
" The investor space is pretty active in asking us
what we're doing on biodiversity. The conversation
has turned from, 'What are you doing in the carbon
space?' to, 'What are you doing in the biodiversity
space?' That's obviously putting us in a position
where we need to be on our front foot, " says Darryl
Stuckey, head of sustainability transformation-
environment, for Lendlease, a $10 billion multinational
construction and property company based in
Sydney, Australia.
AEW, the $91.6 billion property fund manager,
now offers biodiversity planning as a core part of its
advisory process. " We don't own the building, but we
assess biodiversity impacts of the asset-the building
and land around it-and we come up with recommendations
to improve the biodiversity status of the asset
and incorporate this action plan in the improvement
plan of the asset's 10-year capex fund, " says Thierry
Laquitaine, head of socially responsible investing for
the fund. " We include biodiversity questions in our
ESG [environmental, social, and governance] audits,
and scoring that must be assessed by an external
auditor as well as a specific biodiversity audit for
existing and new construction. "
A Challenging Mission
The general concept of encouraging nature to bloom
might seem simple, but developers say that in practice,
building for biodiversity is extremely challenging.
To begin with, developers must conduct a kind
of census of the life they already have on their property.
Often such a survey will include details about
what animals have been living in the area, including
mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and pollinators;
information about the native plants; and measures
of soil, air, and water quality-numbers that
become the baseline for key performance indicators
of biodiversity.
Getting all that down on paper is not easy, even
for a major company. " From a measurement and metrics
perspective, we are still working to understand
the direct and indirect impacts of our business on
biodiversity, " Stuckey says.
Fortunately, some metric frameworks are available,
such as the Biodiversity Metric 3.1, which was developed
by the United Kingdom's Department for Environment,
Food, and Rural Affairs, and the Integrated
Biodiversity Assessment Tool, which was developed
by the IBAT Alliance, a nongovernmental organization
sponsored by Birdlife International, Conservation
International, the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature, and the United Nations Environment
World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
Often, developers find they have many options
available to them that could enhance their property's
WINTER 2023
URBAN LAND
57
2023 Winter Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2023 Winter Issue
