2025-2026
Biodiversity footprint and pressures on nature
At Baisma, we developed a custom methodology and tool to analyse EDP’s relationship with natural capital and identify and quantify its main potential impacts on nature across the value chain.
The project combines the calculation of the biodiversity footprint, aligned with the recommendations of the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF), with an analysis of the main pressures on natural capital and their relationship with affected ecosystem services. This approach complements the quantitative results with qualitative and spatial information to contextualise and locate the impacts.
Identified need
Biodiversity is becoming an increasingly relevant dimension in organisations’ sustainability assessment and reporting. Its assessment requires information that makes it possible both to quantify the potential magnitude of impacts in aggregate terms, facilitating comparison and prioritisation across activities and sites, and to understand which pressures generate those impacts, where they occur, and which elements of natural capital and ecosystem services may be affected.
Based on the existing analyses, a need was identified to structure and make better use of the available information in order to move towards a quantitative and systematic assessment capable of incorporating a value chain perspective and combining it into an aggregated view of impacts, together with information that helps interpret their main causes and areas of impact.
Client profile
EDP is an international energy group operating in electricity generation, distribution and supply, with a significant presence in renewable energy. Its strategy incorporates decarbonisation and sustainability criteria into the development of its projects and operations, including the planning and operation of renewable assets and the monitoring of the environmental performance associated with its activities.
Methodological approach and work process
At Baisma, we developed a specific methodology and an automated tool to integrate different dimensions of impacts on nature.
First, the main pressures exerted on natural capital across the value chain are identified, following an approach aligned with frameworks such as TNFD, and their relationship with potentially affected ecosystem services is analysed.
Based on this information, the biodiversity footprint is calculated by aggregating potential impacts, making it possible to estimate and compare pressures on biodiversity from a life cycle perspective.
The quantitative analysis is complemented by qualitative and spatial metrics designed to incorporate aspects that an aggregated footprint cannot capture on its own, such as the location of impacts, the characteristics of the surrounding environment, and the environmental sensitivity of sites.
The development also includes the collection, structuring and standardisation of existing information, as well as the automation of data processing to facilitate periodic updates of the results and their application across different business units and sites.
Results and value generated
The project provides an integrated view of EDP’s relationship with nature, combining information on environmental pressures, biodiversity footprint, ecosystem services and spatial context.
This approach makes it possible to identify the main factors contributing to potential impacts on biodiversity, compare activities and sites, and provide a technical basis for prioritising further analyses and actions.
The methodology and tool developed also facilitate the updating and traceability of results and generate structured information that can support internal management and reporting processes related to biodiversity and natural capital.
