BioPrint: Biodiversity Footprint for Businesses

Project Description

Objective

BioPrint is a transdisciplinary project that enables companies to safeguard biodiversity by measuring, understanding and reducing their footprint along global value chains. It applies life-cycle methods to quantify impacts at sector, company and product levels. These are paired with practical tools and behavioural strategies that guide businesses in identifying high-impact actions and implementing effective biodiversity management. By working in real business environments and under actual constraints, BioPrint ensures that solutions are both scientifically rigorous and practically feasible. Drawing on expertise from environmental science, psychology, social marketing and business strategy, it delivers a comprehensive framework for transformative change in corporate biodiversity practices.

Relevance

Biodiversity loss, driven by unsustainable value chains, threatens ecosystems, resource security and long-term economic stability. Yet companies often lack the data and tools to respond effectively. BioPrint closes this gap by combining innovative science with business insights to create actionable solutions. It equips companies to build credible sustainability strategies and to contribute to achieving the global biodiversity goals. Through its toolbox and outreach, BioPrint strengthens capacity, informs policymaking and promotes biodiversity-positive behaviour, making it a vital initiative for both business and society.

Transdisciplinary Approach

BioPrint unites experts in environmental science, social marketing, business strategy and sustainability management. Led by ZHAW with BFH, UZH and öbu, the Swiss Business Council for Sustainable Development, as co-leads, it also involves international experts and NGOs such as WWF. Companies are engaged directly through case studies and a dedicated Biodiversity Working Group, ensuring that knowledge is co-produced and grounded in business realities. Working with stakeholders, the team identifies biodiversity hotspots, designs tailored strategies and tests practical solutions. Workshops, surveys and field experiments ensure that scientific insights are translated into actionable tools, fostering mutual learning, building capacity and embedding biodiversity-friendly practices across sectors.