From Pollination to Profit | Why Ecosystem Services Matter to Business

What has nature ever done for us? would make a highly amusing Monty Python sketch. The reality is that we would not exist without nature and your business may be far more reliant on the natural world than is currently appreciated.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) focused on the interrelationship between ecosystems and human wellbeing. It scientifically appraised ecosystems and the services they provide including water, food and flood control to establish how they may be restored, conserved and enhanced. For more, see the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment overview.

What Are Ecosystem Services?

An ecosystem requires energy (usually from the sun) and consists of interactions between living organisms and their physical environment such as land, air and water. Ecosystems can be vast, such as a coral reef or rainforest, or much smaller, like the tree outside your office window. These vibrant natural resources teem with life and are essential for maintaining biodiversity, being the connections between the variety of life on Earth, fundamental to human existence.

Ecosystem services are quite simply the benefits people get from ecosystems. The MA outlined four main categories: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting.

So, What Has Nature Ever Done for Us, and Why Is It Relevant to Your Business?

Provisioning Services

Include the most obvious services provided by ecosystems and are essential for all organisations which use energy derived from oil, gas or electricity. Oil and gas are fossil fuels formed millions of years ago from the remains of marine plants and animals. Electricity may be made from fossil fuels or renewable energy such as solar and wind, also provided by ecosystems.

In addition, the food and beverage industry is reliant upon nature to grow crops to produce their products. Pharmaceutical companies have also harnessed the power of plants to develop medicines. Did you know that aspirin was originally extracted from the bark of the willow tree and morphine from the opium poppy? The Natural History Museum explores more essential medicines powered by plants.

Cotton, silk and hemp provide materials for the textile industry. Trees can provide pulp for the paper and cardboard manufacturing sector. Water is essential for human life and most companies could not function without it.

Regulating Services

These are a bit more discerning than provisioning services. They include the benefits we receive from, for example, clean air, carbon storage, flood management, pollination and disease as well as natural pest control.

Trees can help purify air as well as sequester carbon to regulate against climate change. Coral reefs and mangroves provide natural flood defences in coastal regions. Mangroves also store carbon. Bees transfer pollen from flower to flower whilst busily foraging for nectar. Forests help prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases by creating a barrier between wild animals and humans. Conversely, deforestation can force displaced animals into smaller areas or closer to human settlements enabling viruses to jump more easily between wild animals and humans, as the WWF explains in the link between deforestation and disease.

Regulating services are fundamental to the agricultural industry. Recently speaking at the Hay Festival, Baroness Batters, former NFU President and farmer, championed the humble bat that is all too often stigmatised by the press – think HS2 and bat tunnels as one example. Bats provide essential regulating services. Every night, one bat can eat thousands of crop-damaging insects thereby protecting crops such as corn, cotton, maize and fruit orchards. This reduces the need for chemical pesticides and helps support healthy, nature-friendly farm ecosystems. In addition, by consuming insects, bats naturally reduce the risk that insect-borne diseases pose to humans.

Cultural services

Cultural Services are essential for staff health and wellbeing. The services include recreational, aesthetic and spiritual benefits which can enhance diversity of culture, share knowledge, provide inspiration and educate.  

Whilst staff health and wellbeing is instrumental for all companies, other sectors where cultural services are pertinent include travel and tourism, the arts, education and outdoor recreational activities. Tapping into local knowledge can be highly beneficial for the construction industry when scoping for new developments.

Supporting Services

As their name suggests, supporting services help the other ecosystem services through, for example, healthy soil formation, nutrient and water cycling, providing space for nature and photosynthesis - all of which are essential for plants to grow.  

All industries are dependent upon supporting services especially the water industry, food and beverage sector and agriculture.

Why We Need to Define Ecosystem Services

Most businesses need to make a profit for their own survival. However, the benefits derived from ecosystem services are rarely paid for and have not traditionally formed part of the annual profit and loss account.

It is estimated that bats save farmers $23 billion each year, as the Bat Conservation Trust notes on bats and the food economy. The UNFCCC estimates that coral reefs provide more than $375 billion in ecosystem services annually. Insect pollinators contribute about £630 million to the UK economy and a staggering £150 billion to the global economy every single year, according to BASF on honeybees and agriculture.

By valuing ecosystem services, policymakers can understand the environmental impacts of our actions and take steps to account for the associated costs of ecosystem degradation.   

Research conducted by the MA found that “nearly two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are found to be in decline worldwide”. These unsustainable practices affect the long-term economic prospects of us all. Understanding ecosystem services provides a greater appreciation of the services we have taken for granted which enables our environmental impacts to be incorporated in a monetary cost-benefit analysis.  

Ready to Understand Your Organisation’s Relationship with the Natural World?

Recognising your dependence on ecosystem services is the first step towards managing environmental risk, building resilience and embedding sustainability into the way you operate. At Astutis, we help organisations make sense of their environmental impacts and turn that understanding into practical, lasting action. To find out how we can support your business, get in touch with our team today.