CLIMB, a new model for measuring and valuing biodiversity, is awarded the Sustainability Achievement of the Year 2023. Ecogain's CEO Katarina Walter and senior expert Ruaridh Hägglund were present to receive the award at the Network for Sustainable Business's big Sustainability Day on October 17 in Stockholm.
- "CLIMB has been developed in collaboration with several major stakeholders in the business community. It is a unique initiative that makes knowledge about biodiversity available to everyone so that companies can act preventively and responsibly," says Katarina Walter.
- CLIMB is an important and effective tool that can help and facilitate users to make sustainable decisions with regard to biodiversity. The fact that it is also a collaboration between business, industry organizations, municipalities and authorities shows the strength of doing things together, says Erik Lindroth, chairman of the Network for Sustainable Business.
Jury's motivation:
The Sustainable Business Network has decided to award the Sustainability Achievement of the Year prize to CLIMB - a model for calculating biodiversity. CLIMB is based on a mathematical method and has been developed in close collaboration between business, industry organizations, municipalities and authorities. At a time when six of the nine planetary boundaries are being exceeded, it is more important than ever to be concrete and to act. By making the tool free and accessible to all, CLIMB contributes to informed decisions and a sustainable future.
Accessible to all - for broad-based change
Since September 1, CLIMB has been openly available to all, with the aim of promoting biodiversity on a larger scale. Ecogain has developed CLIMB together with several leading companies in Sweden and with support from Swedish Mining Innovation.
- "CLIMB has already proven its effectiveness as a concrete resource for companies to identify and reduce their impact on nature. It is already being used in several projects and we have also received legal validation that CLIMB is a reliable tool that works in practice," said Katarina Walter, CEO of Ecogain.
The Sustainability Achievement of the Year is a special prize awarded by the Board of the Network for Sustainable Business to recognize and highlight concrete examples of sustainability in business and society. Recipients of the award can be an industry initiative, a project, a collaboration, a business model, an organization or something completely different.
About CLIMB
CLIMB is a collaborative project with Ecogain, Talga, Vattenfall, Sveriges Bergmaterialindustri, Skanska, Svenska Kraftnät, Svemin, Boliden, LKAB, Specialfastigheter, Skellefteå Kraft, Heidelberg Materials.
Over 200 people have engaged and provided important feedback.
An Advisory Board with representatives from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, SLU, Lund University, Chalmers, IIASA, Anthesis, Skellefteå Kraft and Ecogain has been continuously involved in the work on method development.
The project is part of the Strategic Innovation Program Swedish Mining Innovation and is a joint initiative of Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency.