More and more organizations want to track their impact on water, but they quickly run into the same obstacle: how do you assess the current situation, and how do you show whether it’s improving or worsening over time?
There are currently established tools for terrestrial environments. However, there is no comparable method for lakes, waterways, coastal waters, and the ocean. This makes it difficult for a company to know whether it is meeting its own goals, and difficult to communicate the results in a credible manner.
The industry is now taking the first step toward closing this gap. A feasibility study will lay the groundwork for a method that quantifies the impact on water—a metric similar to CLIMB, but tailored for aquatic environments. Ecogain has been entrusted to lead the feasibility study, which is being conducted as a collaborative project with Boliden, Fortum, LKAB, and Vattenfall. In addition to the business sector, the project is also bringing together a panel of experts with representatives from academia.
As a result, there is a growing need to measure the impact on water
Demands to report on environmental impacts are increasing from multiple sources simultaneously. Investors, the market, and other stakeholders want to see measurable data, not just descriptions. Internationally, the global framework established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (Kunming-Montreal, COP15) sets the direction, and initiatives such as Science Based Targets for Nature point toward goals that can be tracked using data. At the EU level, there is the Water Framework Directive and the Nature Restoration Regulation. In Sweden, environmental quality standards for water are already in place, and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management is working on valuable water bodies.
What they have in common is an expectation: to be able to show what the situation looks like today and how it is changing, using comparable figures. For land, this development has come further. The Swedish standard for natural value inventory has been used on land since 2014, and in 2023, CLIMB was launched—a calculation model that converts natural value classes into numerical values. CLIMB is fundamentally a model for land, even though it includes freshwater. For water, the underlying data is less well-established. That is where the gap lies.
What this means for companies that impact aquatic environments
Many companies in the energy, mining, steel, quarrying, infrastructure, finance, and agriculture and forestry sectors have a direct impact on aquatic environments through ongoing or altered land and water use. To track their own goals and strategies, they need to establish a baseline and then measure changes relative to it in a way that is comparable over time and across locations.
Today, it is difficult for individual companies to navigate the existing methods and initiatives on their own. Several models exist, but they address the need to varying degrees, and none yet provides a comprehensive, comparable picture of Sweden’s aquatic environments. This makes monitoring unreliable and communication difficult to justify.
The Feasibility Study: A Method for Measuring Impact on Water
The preliminary study examines two areas: the needs of companies to quantify their impact on water bodies, and the models, tools, and regulatory frameworks that already exist and how well they meet those needs. The survey examines both international and national contexts. Internationally, this includes the UK’s Statutory Biodiversity Metric, which includes a section on watercourses; the U.S. mitigation banking system; Germany’s eco-account system (Ökokonto); and the EU’s criteria linked to the Restoration Regulation. Nationally, the review includes, among other things, the Swedish standard for natural value inventory, which, following the 2023 revision, now also covers marine environments, as well as CLIMB, Värdefulla vatten, and System Aqua.
Next, a gap analysis is conducted. If the analysis reveals a gap between current needs and existing methods, the feasibility study examines whether a new model can be developed and proposes one or more paths forward. The process takes about five months and consists of project initiation, needs assessment through interviews, a review of existing methods, a gap analysis, and recommendations for the next steps.
From CLIMB to a method for aquatic environments
Ecogain led and developed the CLIMB methodology in collaboration with several project partners, and that experience forms the basis for this new initiative. In the feasibility study, Ecogain is contributing project management, analysis of proven methods, a network of scientific experts, an international network, market intelligence, and stakeholder engagement.
One key lesson from CLIMB is that broad support is essential for a metric to gain legitimacy and actually be used. That is why the expert panel is involved right from the preliminary study, not just when it comes time to build a model.
The next step toward a comparable method for water
The feasibility study describes the current situation and needs and sets the direction. Following this, the next step can begin, focusing on the actual development of the methodology, possibly with external funding and a broader reference group to ensure buy-in. The long-term goal is a well-established method for quantifying the impact on Swedish aquatic environments, both the current state and how it is changing. This will enable companies and other stakeholders to demonstrate their impact on water in a credible manner, both negative and positive.
For companies that want to stay ahead of the curve, this is an opportunity to help shape the approach from the ground up, by joining forces rather than going it alone.
