Embedding Nature into Our Strategy: SAP Landscapes

, , , ,

It has been a pleasure to work with SAP Landscapes and the 20+ other businesses engaged in our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme, applying the Business For Nature It’s Now For Nature Accelerator in the Irish context. Their leadership and commitment to embedding nature into their business strategy demonstrates how to build resilience while delivering positive outcomes for biodiversity.

As they progress through the Evolution Track stage of the programme, ESG lead Janice Leonard writes about SAP Landscapes’ journey in a new blog on the Business For Nature site, showing what’s possible when nature becomes part of your organisation’s business decision-making…

“From creating space for wildlife, to encouraging pollinators and carefully managing the natural resources we use, bringing nature into our work is something we have been doing for several years.

“As well as our landscape creation work, we manage businesses’ grounds, and as more organisations are embedding nature into their business models, there’s been a groundswell of interest in customers asking us how they can improve biodiversity on their sites, rather than simply make them look functional and tidy. We work with landscape architects and developers and are increasingly seeing nature embedded in new developments, from pre-construction and landscape delivery to ongoing care and maintenance, creating more schemes that promote nature and biodiversity in the built environment.

“In many ways it’s a natural progression for us because a lot of the work we do is already designed to have a positive impact for people and nature. This includes installing green infrastructure such as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), an environmentally friendly way of managing rainwater, as well as urban greening and other nature-based solutions.

“But when we looked into turning this way of working into a formal nature strategy, we realised we needed to take a broader approach. It’s more than just making operational changes at a site-level and is something that needs run across the whole business.

One of the first steps was building a business case for nature and embedding it at the heart of the company, supported by a governance structure that brought strategic thinking about nature into the boardroom.

“The Accelerator helped us to carry out an in-house materiality exercise, involving workshops with our senior management team, that ranked the topics where we interacted with nature. We also surveyed our stakeholders to find out what their nature priorities were.  As a business that works closely with nature, we’ve always been aware of our impacts, whether it’s the emissions from our vehicles or the resources we use such as timber and aggregates. But working with the ACT-D Framework (Assess, Commit, Transform and Disclose), laid out in the Nature Strategy Handbook, gave the whole process a new structure and helped us develop a nature ambition statement for the company that openly acknowledges our impacts.

“As part of this process, we carried out a deep analysis of our value chain to better understand the type of materials we use, and what to focus on. We have now highlighted five key dependencies and impacts around nature and biodiversity…”

Read more on the Business For Nature It’s Now For Nature site: https://nowfornature.org/sap-landscapes-bringing-the-buzz-of-nature/

Wanted: Businesses for Nature Positive module, TCD

, , ,

Calling Irish businesses – would you like to participate in the groundbreaking Business of Nature Positive module at Trinity College Dublin and get support in developing a nature strategy for your organisation?

BFBI is delighted to continue to work with Dr Catherine Farrell, our Business Programme Advisor and Assistant Professor in Business and Nature in Trinity Business School on the module. In their final year, students work through nature reporting frameworks with businesses to help identify opportunities and risks linked to dependencies and impacts on nature and ecosystem services. Previous participants include BFBI members An Post, Gas Networks Ireland, Dublin Airport Authority, Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail, Scott Cawley Ltd and Watermark Coffee | B Corp – and all Irish businesses are welcome to apply.

If you would like to be one of the businesses that gets to work with talented Trinity College Dublin students in academic year 2026/2027 – just drop Dr Farrell a message at farrec23@tcd.ie or complete the application survey here.

Catherine writes: “Looking back to when I started this journey two years ago, bringing Nature into Trinity Business School, I really couldn’t have imagined how much I would have learned from students and the businesses that engaged with us, and hopefully vice versa. Let me give you an overview of how it works.

We start with a gentle introductory session on ‘what is nature‘ and ‘why nature matters for us‘. Simple questions right? Then ‘who looks after nature‘ and ‘who is accountable for nature‘. You can imagine how tricky things can get there – often the questions in the class room focus on aren’t we all responsible for looking after nature – it’s our home right? Yes. We all depend on nature for the air we breathe, the water we drink (we do have to clean that first of course), and the food we eat. These are our dependencies on nature.

But when we use nature, we also impact on nature. Building on this basic 101 Nature knowledge: all businesses depend on nature in some way, for some the relationship is more explicit. But for ALL businesses, understanding nature dependencies is critical. Only through evidence can we anticipate potential risks and opportunities that we can leverage to help a) reduce our impacts and dependencies, and b) find positive ways of living with / doing business with nature (dear reader: remember that we are living in the climate and biodiversity crises era so transforming business for good is required!).

Once the students get their head around dependencies and impacts, risks and opportunities (think DIROs), we get into the (inspiring) array of reporting frameworks that are emerging. Businesses can use frameworks like CSRD and TNFD to help organise their information (for use in a more standardised approach to reporting) on nature.

Once November hits we start working with real-world businesses and a big shout out to the companies that worked with our students this year – and indeed, more so to the champions in each business who gave their valuable time to engage with a great group of students. Our businesses in 2025 / 2026 were: An Post, Gas Networks Ireland, Dublin Airport Authority, Irish Rail, Ballinahinna Farm Ltd. (a dairy farm in Co. Cork), STABLE of Ireland, Chartered Accountants Ireland, IPB Insurance, Powerscourt Estate, Watermark Coffee, Barrys Tea and Scott Cawley Ltd.

You can read about last year’s businesses here – but here’s some inspirational quotes from a few of the 12 businesses we worked with in 2025/2026 –

Excellent communication and feedback from students helping develop our business in this area. Thomas, Ballinahinna Farm.

Working with the students was a fantastic experience. Their in-depth review of where we were as a business in terms of nature and biodiversity was really inciteful and provided great input for us to continue on that journey. I would highly recommend any business to get involved. Dee, Chartered Accountants Ireland

The students demonstrated a good understanding of An Post’s business and provided considered, relevant insights, adapting their approach based on our position. The engagement was flexible, and the outputs were strong relative to the level of time and commitment involved. It is a valuable opportunity for organisations looking to develop or inform their biodiversity strategy. Alex, An Post

A last word of thanks to the students of the class of 2026 – and remember, always make space for nature in the boardroom. There wouldn’t be a boardroom without it.’

If you would like to be one of the businesses that gets to work with talented Trinity College Dublin students in academic year 2026/2027 – just drop Dr Farrell a message at farrec23@tcd.ie or complete the application survey here.

Accelerating Action: BFBI at Biodiversity + Business Live

, , ,

BFBI’s Executive Director Dr Maria Fitzpatrick joined more than 100 business leaders, senior government officials, scientists and conservation experts in Edinburgh for Biodiversity + Business Live: Leaders Accelerating Action, hosted by JNCC, the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum and NatureScot.   

Ahead of key global meetings later in the year, including the next Convention on Biological Diversity’s Conference of the Parties (CBD COP17), the event explored how businesses can use the latest scientific evidence, building on the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, to integrate nature into decision-making, manage risks, build resilience and unlock opportunities for sustainable growth.

The key message: biodiversity loss is one of the biggest strategic risks facing businesses today and those that act on nature now will build financial resilience, long-term profitability and gain competitive advantage. The key takeaway?

‘Boards and business leads need to move from disclosure to delivery’.

Maria joined the Working Dialogues session on ‘Enabling environment post 2030’, aimed at identifying priority actions to support businesses working for nature and enable them to move from awareness and commitment to action, as well as barriers and enablers to implementation, with key messages to inform talks at Cop17.

UKBBF Chair Paul Harrison, FRGS, summarised some of the Working Dialogues findings afterwards:

  • Nature investment must be framed as a driver of competitive advantage, short-term profitability and futureproofing for businesses
  • Biodiversity loss can no longer be treated as an isolated issue. We need a single combined narrative that interlinks climate, technological disruption and geopolitical risks over a short and long-term horizon
  • There must be clear benchmarking for companies to compare progress against peers, as well as consistent, national frameworks that will help them take and measure positive action

Business for Nature’s Head of Global Engagement Martin Cruickshank highlighted the global initiative It’s Now for Nature Accelerator, with a shout-out to BFBI as Irish partner, encouraging all countries and organisations to develop and publish on their nature strategies as soon as possible using the accelerator framework and upload these alongside examples from Chile, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Taiwan among others.

Other speakers at Biodiversity + Business Live included Professor Colin Galbraith of NatureScot, David Cooper, Chair of JNCC, Mark Johnston of UKBBF and Dr Gemma Harper OBE FAcSS, CEO of JNCC who said: “Biodiversity loss is not just an environmental challenge, it is a strategic business risk. Together we can help restore nature, strengthen economic resilience and build a nature-positive future.”

The event highlighted how important collaboration is – learning from each other is something BFBI has strived to enable through exchanging ideas with our peers at forums such as these and, closer to home, bringing our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme businesses together for in-person workshops to share challenges and insights, encouraging all Irish businesses to share their sustainability initiatives and learn from peers via our partners, SustainabilityExamples.com and gathering member feedback to refine our offerings.

Ready to get started? Read more about the BFBI Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme HERE, with thanks to support from National Parks & Wildlife Services, Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, National Biodiversity Data Centre, Business in the Community Ireland, Deloitte Ireland and KPMG Ireland.
Fiona Smith

 

Launch of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2026-2030

, ,

BFBI Executive Director Dr Maria Fitzpatrick attended the launch of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2026-2030 at an event hosted by Dr Noeleen Smyth, Director at the National Botanic Gardens, supported through the Government of Ireland’s Shared Island Fund, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the NIEA Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

It was great to hear both Minister for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the NI Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Andrew Muir speaking in support of the plan and emphasising the need for a strong Shared Island approach. Chief Scientific Officer at the National Biodiversity Data Centre Úna Fitzpatrick spoke on the importance of business actions for pollinators, with colleagues in attendance including Business & Biodiversity Officer for the Pollinator Plan Sarah Kelly, Cillian McMahon of Business in the Community Ireland, Biodiversity Officer at Kildare County Council Méabh Boylanand our BFBI member Geoff Hamilton, Biodiversity Lead at ESB, currently pioneering the Evolution Track of our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme.

Connecting Nature and connecting networks is a big theme for the plan, according to Eimear Fox, Senior Landscape Architect at Transport Infrastructure Ireland, something BFBI will be encouraging the many transport members in our business network to work on developing. The vision is to create a landscape that provides food and shelter every 200 metres, as important solitary bees can only travel short distances from their nest sites to find food.

The launch also heard from tillage farmer Andrew Bergin on the good work he is doing with the Pollinator Plan, tweaking farming methods to help pollinators flourish. The launch also heard from Assistant Parks and Landscape Officer Cat Savage and Dr Dara Stanley, of the Irish Pollinator Research Network, University College Dublin among many more.

Welcoming the launch, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan has proved an enormous success over the last decade in bringing together farmers, local communities, public bodies and businesses to help conserve and create a landscape where pollinators can survive and thrive. I look forward to seeing the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan expand and continue this crucial work in protecting sustainable agriculture, food security, and benefitting the island’s unique and precious biodiversity.”

Read more here: https://biodiversityireland.ie/launch-of-all-ireland-pollinator-plan-2026-2030/

Access the new All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2026-2030: https://pollinators.ie/

Now Hiring: Operations Lead – Business for Biodiversity Ireland

, ,

We’re hiring! Business for Biodiversity Ireland (BFBI) is growing, and we’re looking for an experienced, independent Operations Lead to build the operational backbone that our growth demands.

BFBI is a not-for-profit social enterprise, supporting businesses to develop a solid strategy on biodiversity, leading the way to a nature-positive economy for Ireland. The role is a fully remote contractor role (12 days per month), however must be based in Ireland. You will report directly to our Executive Director and lead operations for a growing team of contractors, a widening portfolio of programmes, and increasingly complex funder and partner relationships.

What you’ll be doing:

  • Building the systems, processes and infrastructure BFBI needs to scale
  • Leading financial management, budgeting and grant funding — including proactively identifying new funding opportunities
  • Supporting people, governance, compliance and Board processes
  • Supporting programme delivery and the development of new initiatives.

What we’re looking for:

  • Proven senior operations experience, ideally building processes from scratch
  • A strong, independent operator who takes ownership and delivers reliably
  • Comfort moving between strategic thinking and hands-on admin
  • CRM (HubSpot) and accounting software (Sage) experience a plus.

Full job spec in the PDF attached:

Interested? Send your CV and cover letter to Dr Maria Fitzpatrick, manager@businessforbiodiversity.ie by 31 July. Questions welcome at the same address.

Full Speed Ahead for a Nature-Positive Roadmap

, , ,

BFBI is delighted to host a guest article by Adam Condon, a student of The Business of Nature Positive module at Trinity College Dublin – an exploration of more sustainable options to address the nature-related impacts of waste generation from energy products after marathon events.

A Nature-Positive Roadmap for Sports Nutrition:

Finish Line Fallacy

Three weeks after last October’s Dublin Marathon, I was walking my dog along the road when he nosed something silver out of the hedgerow. A crumpled energy gel wrapper, still sticky with maltodextrin, I grabbed out of his mouth. We hadn’t walked fifty metres before he found another. Then another. The race was long over. The waste was not.

The maths here is grim but worth doing. Around 25,000 runners line up each year, and most marathon fuelling plans call for roughly ten gels across the 42 kilometres. That is potentially up to 250,000 single-use wrappers dropped in a single morning across Dublin’s roads, parks, and canals. And that only counts race day. Factor in the training block, months of weekend long runs through the Phoenix Park, along the city centre, out past UCD, and the real number climbs far higher. Silver sticky wrappers sit in hedgerows, parks, and gardens, from July to October, waiting for the dogs, foxes, and wildlife that smell food and pull them loose.

These wrappers cannot be recycled. They are multi-material laminates, meaning, plastic film fused to aluminium foil, and no recycling site in the country will take them (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2016). Because they can’t be recycled, over time they fragment into microplastics that leach into soil and waterways, entering food chains and degrading the Dublin biodiversity we are trying to restore (UNEP, 2021). For a sport built on being outdoors, that is a genuinely sticky irony.

A Product That Depletes Nature Twice

The litter we can see is only half the problem. This product depletes nature twice: once when it is made, and again when it is tossed. Working through the sports nutrition value chain, I was shocked by how deep the upstream damage runs. The fuel inside most gels, maltodextrin, comes from intensive corn or wheat monocultures. These systems strip soil and organic matter, lean on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, and generate nutrient runoff that leads to algal blooms and aquatic dead zones far from the farm (Tilman et al., 2002). The wrapper is worse. Its aluminium foil lining starts life as bauxite ore, extracted through open-pit mining that tears through tropical forests and leaves behind toxic red mud lagoons in place of thriving ecosystems (Power, Gräfe and Klauber, 2011).

Through a double materiality lens, gel brands carry nature-related risk at both ends of their value chain. Upstream, they depend on degraded ecosystems for raw materials. Downstream, the product waste directly harms local biodiversity. Under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), companies are increasingly expected to disclose exactly these kinds of impacts and dependencies (EFRAG, 2024). Sports nutrition brands that ignore this two-way exposure are on borrowed time.

The “Design to Fail” Business Model

The current model is to sell-and-forget. Brands take high margins on the fuel and knowingly push the cost of the wrapper onto local councils and nature itself. The packaging design, at best, assumes that an exhausted runner, sticky-handed, oxygen-deprived, and kilometres from the nearest bin, will somehow hold onto multiple torn empty wrappers until they find one. That is not a realistic assumption. It is a product designed to fail.

The EU’s incoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) turns this into a direct financial liability (European Commission, 2022). The PPWR introduces recyclability requirements, minimum recycled content thresholds, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations rooted in the Polluter Pays principle. Brands still selling non-recyclable laminate packaging will face rising EPR levies, potential market restrictions, and inevitable reputational damage across the single market. The only question left is whether companies treat incoming regulation as a grudging cost or as impetus to improve their entire product.

“If You Sell the Fuel, Own the Wrapper”

A Nature Positive Roadmap

Nature Positive is not a slogan. The Nature Positive Initiative (2024) defines it as an ambitious goal referring to measurable outcomes that contribute to halting and reversing nature loss. In terms of sports nutrition, that means moving up the Mitigation Hierarchy. Instead of limiting damage at the end, we avoid the impact entirely through redesign, then actively restore the ecosystems the product touches along the way. The principle I propose is simple: if you sell the fuel, own the wrapper.

On the packaging side, viable alternatives already exist through emerging nature-based enterprises (NBEs). Notpla, a London-based startup, produces seaweed-based packaging that dissolves harmlessly in soil and water, captures and stores carbon in its structure during growth, and requires no arable land or freshwater to produce (Notpla, 2024). By addressing both climate change and biodiversity loss simultaneously, it offers a scalable solution to the polycrisis we face. They have already trialled it at the London Marathon. Picture a gel wrapper that, if dropped by a wrecked runner at mile twenty, breaks down into organic matter within weeks. The downstream biodiversity threat disappears.

On the ingredient side, brands can shift their maltodextrin sourcing towards regenerative agriculture systems that rebuild soil health, increase water retention, and restore microbial diversity (Rodale Institute, 2020). This turns the upstream crisis on its head: a nature-depleting input becomes a nature-restoring one. Major food companies are already investing in regenerative sourcing programmes. The sports nutrition sector has no excuse not to follow.

Runners care about the outdoors. They rely on the cultural ecosystem services, the recreation, amenity, and well-being values, provided by places like the Phoenix Park and the Grand Canal. A brand that delivers  the first genuinely Nature Positive gel, compostable wrapper, regeneratively sourced fuel, does not just avoid a compliance headache. It earns lasting loyalty from a community that can spot greenwashing a mile off. Research consistently shows endurance athletes are willing to pay a premium for sustainably packaged products (Trivium Packaging, 2023). An extra fifty cents per gel to protect the route you love running is not a hard sell.

Fuel the Runner, Not the Route

The sports nutrition industry has a choice ahead of it. One path leads to rising EPR fees, regulatory scrambling, and more silver gel wrappers piling up in Ireland’s hedgerows. The other leads to material innovation, restored supply chains, and brand storytelling that stands out more than any ad campaign.

Event organisers can help force this change. The Dublin Marathon and other mass-participation races should mandate compostable packaging for all sponsored nutrition products by 2028. If your brand wants endorsement, its wrapper should not end up in the Grand Canal.

The finish line is not the end of a product’s lifecycle. It is where accountability starts. If you fuel the runner sustainably, runners will buy the fuel.

References:
EFRAG (2024) EFRAG IG 1: Materiality Assessment Implementation Guidance. Brussels: European Financial Reporting Advisory Group.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2016) The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics. World Economic Forum.
European Commission (2022) Proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste, COM(2022) 677 final. Brussels.
Nature Positive Initiative (2024) What does Nature Positive mean? Available at: https://www.naturepositive.org/ (Accessed: March 2026).
Notpla (2024) ‘Our Technology.’ Available at: https://www.notpla.com/technology (Accessed: March 2026).
Power, G., Gräfe, M. and Klauber, C. (2011) ‘Bauxite residue issues: I. Current management, disposal and storage practices.’
Hydrometallurgy, 108(1–2), pp. 33–45.
Rodale Institute (2020) Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change: A Down-to-Earth Solution. Kutztown, PA: Rodale Institute.
Tilman, D., Cassman, K.G., Matson, P.A., Naylor, R. and Polasky, S. (2002) ‘Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices.’ Nature, 418(6898), pp. 671–677.
Trivium Packaging (2023) 2023 Buying Green Report. Amsterdam: Trivium Packaging. Available at: https://buyinggreen.triviumpackaging.com (Accessed: March 2026).
UNEP (2021) From Pollution to Solution: A Global Assessment of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme

Webinar: Building a Nature-Positive Business

, , , , , ,

This National Biodiversity Week, Business For Biodiversity Ireland invites you to our free lunchtime webinar, Building a Nature-Positive Business: Your Get-Started Guide, in collaboration with our partners at SustainabilityExamples.com.

In this 40-minute online briefing, you will gain insight on how to use our free online resources to swiftly build your biodiversity knowledge, make the business case for nature and begin integrating biodiversity into your decision-making, as our Technical & Research Lead Dr Emer Ní Dhúill talks you through the basics of our free online Discovery Track module, part of the BFBI Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme for Irish businesses.

Sustainability Examples CEO and co-founder Andrew Sheehan will also demonstrate how his innovative website can help you learn more from peers leading on sustainability and how to best showcase your organisation’s practical progress, while strengthening reputation and resilience and unlocking new business value. Register on eventbrite HERE 

When: Tuesday, May 19th, 2026, 12pm-12.40pm

Where: Online over Teams

Headshot of smiling woman with brown hair

Who: Dr Emer Ní Dhúill – Technical & Research Lead at BFBI, Emer has qualifications in ecology, botany and horticulture and has had a long career as an ecologist surveying both rare and invasive plant species in Ireland. Having witnessed the negative impact of invasive species and certain land use practices on Ireland’s biodiversity, it pushed her to think more deeply about the biodiversity crisis, focusing on understanding what our impacts and dependencies on biodiversity are. Emer’s work with BFBI includes developing and delivering workshops for members on developing credible nature strategies. She also manages delivery of research projects to NGOs, government bodies and agencies with a focus on addressing nature-related DIROs (Dependencies, Impacts, Risks, Opportunities) due to business activities. 

Headshot of smiling man with beard and green jumper

Andrew Sheehan – A qualified accountant in addition to having 15 years’ experience in senior marketing roles, Andrew recently launched the website initiative SustainabilityExamples.com. To-date, more than 100 companies across five countries are using it to share verified examples of climate action progress and nature positive impact.

Book your free ticket: HERE 

Assess: Moving into Action with our opening workshop

, , , , ,

Our first immersive Action Track workshop of 2026 was delivered by our new Business Programme Lead Caroline Cawley and BFBI Technical & Research Lead Dr Emer Ní Dhùill, supported by our Business Programme Advisor Dr Catherine Farrell, Asst Prof Nature & Business at Trinity College Dublin at the Deloitte Ireland HQ in Dublin on April 14.

The workshop, supported by Deloitte’s WorldClimate Team, covered how our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme (NSAP) businesses would begin to assess nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities (DIROs) as a step to building credible, future-proof, impact-focused nature strategies, that drive action for the benefit of biodiversity and nature. The NSAP is based on our global partners Business For Nature‘s ACT-D framework. The framework is a 4-part, iterative process to Assess, Commit, Transform and Disclose on your organisation’s relationship with nature.

In this opening workshop, we talked about scoping boundaries and identifying stakeholders, looking at a variety of examples from major organisations on how they are presenting the mapping of their value chains, and exchanging ideas on where the focus should be in a post-Omnibus era. Our businesses explored the options for their sectors and their particular business model, as they work toward the key output of this Track – a Double Materiality Assessment, by asking: “What is the extent of our value chain and who are the important voices in it?”

Caroline commented: “It’s a really exciting time to be working in the nature and sustainability space, as we support Irish businesses to start to understand how to map and measure their dependencies and impacts on nature.”

Thanks to our participating businesses including CIÉ Group’s Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Irish Rail, Dublin Airport Authority, Shannon Airport Group and Eirgrid for their diligent work with us and our supporters at Deloitte Ireland including Cáitlín Flanagan and Eimear Kelly, and  Sarah Kelly from the National Biodiversity Data Centre, and the National Parks & Wildlife Service.

Find out more about our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme HERE.

Introducing our new BFBI Board Members

,

Business For Biodiversity Ireland is delighted to welcome four new board members as we expand our sustainability leadership and compliance expertise in our quest to support every Irish business in moving to Nature Positive.

Joining our Board of Directors as of Q1 2026 are Garrett Quinn of sustainable packaging company Smurfit Westrock; Professor of  Zoology at Trinity College Dublin Nessa O’Connor; sustainability consultant Aideen O’Hora of SustainabilityWorks and Dr Rosie O’Neill, Director of Sustainability at ifac. They join our existing Board made up of BFBI Chair Susan Rossney of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Board Secretary Lisa Davidson, Ed Pollard of the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum and Ken Whitelaw of IDA Ireland.

As we welcome our new directors, we would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our departing directors Prof Jane Stout of Trinity College Dublin and Dr Kirstie McAdoo of University College Dublin for their years of work with us.

More on our new recruits here below:

Garrett Quinn

Garrett was appointed Group Chief Sustainability Officer at Smurfit Westrock in July 2021 and took on Branding and Communications in 2026. He joined the Group in 2000 and has held a number of roles in operations across the Group in Argentina, France and Ireland before moving to the UK where he managed a number of corrugated box plants. In 2016, he took up the position of Head of Investor Relations, a position held to 2021. Garrett holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University College Dublin and has completed his postgraduate studies with the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership. He was appointed as Director to the Smurfit Westrock Foundation in 2022.

Prof Nessa O’Connor

Nessa is a Professor in Zoology at Trinity College Dublin and a leading scientist in the field of regenerative ocean farming. Her research examines how coastal ecosystems function, their associated ecosystem services, and how they are responding to stressors, such as climate change, species loss and pollution. Her research team have identified many of the effects of global change on marine ecosystems. She has led several national and European interdisciplinary research projects providing scientific evidence for the suitable development of coastal resources (e.g. mussels, oysters and seaweed) linked to business development of emerging markets and nature-based solutions.

Aideen O’Hora

Aideen is a Co-Founder of SustainabilityWorks, a leading, independent sustainability consulting firm, that brings deep expertise in sustainability strategy, ESG reporting, finance, innovation and communications. An environmental scientist by training, Aideen has experience across the public & private sectors, including with Novartis, Abbott Laboratories, The Sustainability Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), The Green Way (Dublin’s cleantech cluster) and various local authorities, giving her a uniquely applied perspective that balances priorities on sustainability performance, commercial value and regulatory compliance. Aideen has a Masters in Integrated Environmental Management from the University of Bath and a BSc (hons) in Environmental Science from Atlantic Technical University.

Dr Rosie O’Neill

Rosie is Director of Sustainability at ifac, and holds a PhD from University College Dublin/Teagasc on the impact of management factors on soil microbial communities and nitrous oxide emissions, with a BA in Environmental Science from Trinity College Dublin. She was previously Sustainability Manager at An Post, supporting the company’s sustainability journey through ISO 14001 recertification across a 160-property portfolio, annual sustainability reporting to CDP, EcoVadis and the International Post Corporation, and conducted cost-benefit analyses of low-carbon infrastructure investments. Rosie leads on sustainability advisory practice at ifac, authoring the organisation’s first voluntary CSRD-aligned sustainability report in 2024, ahead of regulatory requirements and aligned with EU Taxonomy, Double Materiality and ESRS standards. She advises clients across the agri-food, SME and public sectors on carbon accounting, ESG strategy, climate risk and environmental compliance.

Read more about our Board of Directors on our BFBI Team page HERE.

Events putting nature firmly on the ESG agenda

, , , ,

It was a week which underlined how much nature has solidified its place on the business agenda alongside climate issues – with the inaugural Carbon & Nature Forum, a Nature Panel at the Business Post ESG & Sustainable Business Summit, BFBI as a finalist at the ESG Awards and our first Nature Strategy Accelerator workshop of the year.

Our Executive Director Dr Maria Fitzpatrick writes:

We launched into the second quarter of 2026 with a week of inspiring events that really brought home how much nature is now firmly on the business agenda alongside climate – kicking off on Tuesday, April 14th with our first in-person workshop of 2026 with this year’s first cohort of businesses for our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme’s Action Track Workshop #1, delivered in association with Deloitte’s WorldClimate Team at their HQ in Dublin.

The focus: getting practical and helping our member organisations identify what’s truly material for them when it comes to reporting and strategy. More on that in future, with two more workshops in the pipeline. Huge thanks to all who participated in an interactive day-long session, to the BFBI team and our new Business Programme Lead Caroline Cawley making her workshop lead debut, to our Business Programme Advisor Dr Catherine Farrell for her continued input into the 2026 programme and to our workshop delivery partners Deloitte Ireland’s Sustainability Leader Caítlín Flanagan for their ongoing support.

That same day, the first Carbon & Nature Forum at Trinity Business School, hosted by the fantastic BE IMPACTFUL team, brought together a powerhouse line-up, with Asst Prof of Business & Nature Dr Catherine Farrell joining the panel discussions. Huge thanks to Tom Popple, Orlaith Delargy, and Louise French for creating such a valuable space. It was one of those sessions you don’t want to leave (even when your calendar says otherwise). Looking forward to being part of what comes next.

The evening of nature and climate conversations continued at the Climate Heist in The Sugar Club with Climate Cocktail Club – an engaging and thought-provoking mix of music and conversation, featuring voices such as Lesley O’Connor and Aoife O’Leary, alongside inspiring examples of climate innovation and entrepreneurship. BFBI is delighted to get involved in the Climate Cocktail Club’s second annual Climate Carnival ‘From Siloes to Systems’ coming up in September so stay tuned and join the mailing list for more updates on registration and collaboration opportunities. See www.climatecocktailclub.org/events

Wednesday took us to the Business Post ESG and Sustainable Business Summit in Croke Park, moderated by broadcaster Philip Boucher-Hayes, where BFBI was proud to take the stage on the dedicated Nature Panel, with Caroline Cawley joining Bob Hamilton, CEO of Irish Trees Ltd, (valued members of our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme), Dr Siobhan McQuaid of GoNaturePositive!, Horizon Nua, Trinity College Dublin and Stewart Gee, of Climate KIC, and keynote speaker Anne Reaney of Rebalance Earth, sharing insights on how businesses are moving to a nature-positive way of working. Our team, including Research & Tech Lead Dr Emer Ní Dhúill and myself were on hand to chat to delegates at our BFBI exhibition stand. Another day of great discussions, strong engagement, and plenty of follow-ups already in motion.

We wrapped up the week on Thursday, April 16th, as finalists at the ESG Business & Finance Awards 2026 in the Biodiversity Leadership in Business category for the second year in a row. While it wasn’t our day, congratulations to Coillte on a well-deserved win. And a big thank you to Chartered Accountants Ireland and our Chair Susan Rossney for the warm hospitality and great conversations.

 

Also a big thankyou to our funders National Parks & Wildlife Service and to our associates in KPMG Ireland Sustainable Futures, the National Biodiversity Data Centre, Business in the Community Ireland, Natural Capital Ireland and SustainabilityExamples.com – and to everyone who has been involved in supporting our work helping Irish businesses to integrate biodiversity into business strategy to date.

It’s weeks like this that act as a reminder of just how much momentum is building around bringing nature into the boardroom. So many brilliant people, conversations and ideas – all contributing to what can sometimes feel like an uphill climb but one that’s absolutely worth it.

A strong reminder that progress happens through collaboration, persistence and showing up – again and again.

Ready to show up for nature? Sign up free today to our Nature Strategy Accelerator Programme Discovery Track to access free resources & webinars and take our 10-step module to build your biodiversity knowledge – https://businessforbiodiversity.ie/how-it-all-works/

ESG Summit photos by Maura Hickey

Our Funders

Contact

Got any queries or suggestions? Get in touch via our contact form below or at manager@businessforbiodiversity.ie 

    Our global affiliations

    Social channels

    Eco- Friendly Web Alliance Accredited

    Business for Biodiversity Ireland were awarded the Climate-Positive Website Accreditation by the Eco- Friendly Web Alliance

    Read more >

    Become a Member

    Business for Biodiversity Ireland is a not-for-profit organisation supporting businesses in their journey to nature positive.

    Join Now >