One Planet Business (OPB)

Developing the OPB Global Evidence Base

One Planet Business is a major new WWF Initiative that aims to develop commitments to systemic change among the complete range of stakeholders involved in meeting particular human demands (such as mobility and food).

SERI was involved in the preperation of the OPB Global Evidence Base, which was develped by WWF, in conjunction with the world’s leading organosations in ecological footprint and resource flow analysis.

The team created a measurement tool that allows business and its stakeholders to measure the global environmental impact of sectors, in terms of its ecological footprint, CO2 emissions and resource use. The One Planet Business Global Evidence Base, while also enabling the collation of information to provide overshoot and understanding its underlying causes.

Disaggregating the data to provide more detailed assessments is a central feature of the One Planet Business Evidence Base, while also enabling the collation of information to provide an overall planetary assessment. The structure is focused on four levels:

Level 1: provides the data set at the highest level of aggregation, providing a global picture of resource use compared to overall biocapacity.

Level 2: by ‘demand’ category: how are global resources used to provide food, housing, clothing another services?

Level 3: by industry sector: which industries are responsible for what level of overall footprint?

Level 4: by company and products, what total footprint is associated with which individual companies and products?

Under the title “One Planet Business. Creating Value Within Planetary Limits” WWF and SustainAbiliy published a report produced in cooperation with SERI, SEI, Best Foot Forward and the Global Footprint Network. It explains the concept of ecological overshoot and describes business oportunities within the limits set by ecological systems. The report can be downloaded from www.wwflearning.org.uk/one-planet-business .