Business in the Community, in partnership with Ulster Wildlife, has launched a new Business and Biodiversity Charter to help protect our local environment
BUSINESS in the Community, in partnership with Ulster Wildlife, has launched a new Business and Biodiversity Charter that aims to inspire and encourage businesses throughout Northern Ireland to help protect and enhance biodiversity.
Ian Nuttall, Head of Environment at Business in the Community Northern Ireland explains: “Biodiversity is at the heart of virtually all the natural day-to-day processes that we take for granted. From the air that we breathe, to the food that we eat and water we drink – to more economically relevant issues such as the supply of raw materials – it really is a critical business issue.
“All businesses, regardless of organisational size, location or the industry sector they operate in, are both affected by, and rely upon biodiversity and ecosystems. With almost 10% of the Northern Ireland landscape now classified as urban, it’s vital that we engage employers in protecting biodiversity.”
He continues: “That’s why, in partnership with Ulster Wildlife, we’ve developed a new Business and Biodiversity Charter that will provide a framework to help local businesses to engage with biodiversity. The Charter uses a staged approach that makes it manageable and accessible to all organisations from micro-businesses to large facilities owned by multi-national companies. We hope that this new programme will encourage businesses to develop their biodiversity initiatives, and we would urge businesses of all shapes and sizes to get involved.”
Jennifer Fulton, Chief Executive of Ulster Wildlife adds: “We are delighted to be involved in the development and delivery of this new Business and Biodiversity Charter. Biodiversity is what makes Northern Ireland unique. It also helps to stabilise the food chain and improve resilience. All businesses have an important role to play in ensuring that production is sustainable and our biodiversity and natural capital assets is valued, protected and sensitively managed.”
AES is one of the first organisations to sign up to the Charter. Lucy Marsden, Health, Safety, Security and Environment Advisor for AES commented: “AES UK & Ireland is committed to the development of a world class corporate biodiversity programme. We manage over 80 acres of biodiversity rich land holdings at our Ballylumford and Kilroot generation sites in an environmentally conscious manner, and the Charter will help us to do more with local communities to protect biodiversity where we live and work.”
The Business and Biodiversity Charter is open to all organisations throughout Northern Ireland. To register your interest, please contact [email protected] or call (028) 9046 0606. Or for more information, visit www.bitcni.org.uk/what-we-do/planet