Nordea has announced a donation of EUR 200,000 to support the University of Jyväskylä's research program focused on biodiversity impact in the Nordic countries. This four-year initiative aims to develop open-access methods for assessing the biodiversity footprint of economic activities. The University of Jyväskylä is recognized as a leading institution in Europe for biodiversity research and has pioneered studies on how consumption accounts can help understand the carbon and biodiversity footprint of organizations.
The research will explore challenges and opportunities related to the biodiversity dependency and impact of economic activities within local and global value chains in the Nordic region. It will particularly focus on sectors that are impactful or vulnerable concerning biodiversity loss, such as real estate.
All findings from this research, including data, will be made openly accessible to stakeholders, contributing to sustainability transitions in Nordic societies. Nordea's support aims to enhance understanding within corporate and financial sectors about nature in the Nordic region. Biodiversity loss is considered one of today's critical challenges, driven by societal impacts like land- and sea-use changes, resource exploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive species.
"Biodiversity is rapidly rising on the agenda as the next big sustainability topic after climate," said Anja Hannerz, Head of Group Sustainability at Nordea. "We’re focused on building our capacity to address this at Nordea to be able to support the transition of companies in the Nordic countries to reduce negative and increase positive impact on nature."
The University of Jyväskylä collaborates with several science partners in Finland such as Natural Resources Institute Finland, Finnish Environment Institute, and The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. It also works with international companies like Nokia and various global research teams.