(adapted from www.biodiversitybenchmark.org)

Every piece of land, however small or large - from the smallest gardens to large-scale landscape projects - can help conserve and enhance the UK’s biodiversity, which as we all know is vital to our economy, health and well being

Every organisation that owns or uses land can play a part by managing their land with the environment in mind. If businesses are to become sustainable then biodiversity must become fully integrated into their environmental management systems such as ISO 14001 and the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. Government has issued advice on how to do this.

The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark is the first award for business to recognise continual biodiversity improvement. It was set up to support the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) to help increase the contribution that businesses can make towards enhancing biodiversity. It is the first award to recognise continual biodiversity improvement.

The Benchmark is a management process that enables any organisation which owns or manages land to assess its impact on the natural world, improve its contribution to the environment and demonstrate its commitment to biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Benchmark is flexible and adaptable so it can be applied to any organisation with land, from commercial enterprises and industries, to local authorities, utilities, the NHS, developers, charities, hotels and recreational/tourism facilities.

Even if an organisation does not own land but is responsible for land management, it is likely to be eligible to apply for the Biodiversity Benchmark.

The Biodiversity Benchmark complements existing environmental management systems and is easy to integrate with them. However, it has a single-minded focus on the management of land for the benefit of wildlife, people and the participating organisations themselves, in support of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP).

Biodiversity Benchmark awards are issued for three categories:

Single site - where a single certificate is issued for a designated site; for example this could be an area of land around a Head Office.

Multiple sites - where all sites selected by the client organisation are visited and evaluated with individual certificates issued for each site that achieves the Biodiversity Benchmark standard. This could apply to a multiple retailer, in the process of enhancing land around their stores but not all sites are yet up to scratch.

Whole organisation - this is for an organisation with several sites who wishes to achieve the Biodiversity Benchmark ‘across the board’. Initially a selection of the organisation's sites will be visited and assessed. During subsequent years, surveillance visits will be made to the remainder of the organisation's sites.

For more information visit www.biodiversitybenchmark.org