OCE-B.14.A - Ecosystem Services Dependence Assessment
Does the company assess its dependence on ecosystem services?
About the data
The WBA Ocean Benchmark measures and ranks the world's most influential companies on their efforts to halt and reverse nature loss in marine ecosystems, tracking how companies manage their impacts on ocean biodiversity, marine habitats, and the communities and workers dependent on healthy seas. The 2026 edition is WBA's first Ocean Benchmark, assessing 125 companies across key sectors dependent on oceans, including seafood, maritime transport, offshore wind energy, shipbuilding, port operations, apparel, and chemicals. Companies are assessed on 47 indicators across four measurement areas: governance, ecosystems and biodiversity, social responsibility, and core social indicators. The benchmark builds on WBA's Nature Benchmark and the former Seafood Stewardship Index, and its methodology was developed with input from more than 50 stakeholders including ocean communities, companies, scientists and civil society, with human rights and social impacts kept at its core alongside nature-specific concerns. More information can be found here.
Methodology
Ecosystem services are the benefits that humans derive from ecosystems and on which
human life and activities, including corporate activities, rely. Research shows that more than 50% of
global gross domestic product is directly linked to these ecosystem services (WEF and PwC, 2020),
exposing companies to significant nature-related dependencies, risks and opportunities. The 2024
Global Risks Report shows that the top four risks identified over the next ten years are all
environmental: extreme weather events, critical change to Earth systems, biodiversity loss and
ecosystem collapse, and natural resource shortages. Understanding and disclosing these factors is
essential for companies to develop resilient strategies and contribute to a sustainable economy.
Research Guidance:
Companies must:
**Identify the main ways it is dependent on nature **(e.g. **ecosystem services** or **nature's contributions to people**). This could include both direct dependence for their own operations or indirect dependence via their value chain. The dependence must be made explicit by the company. Vague or general references to a dependence on nature are insufficient to meet this element. Companies can use, for example, the ENCORE tool to identify those for their industry.
**Quantify the extent of dependence** on at least one identified ecosystem service, expressed in relevant units such as volume, area, or monetary value, to highlight the significance of these services to their business operations.
Example metrics that can be used for **quantifying the extent of dependence**:
**Volume or quantity**: For provisioning services, measure the amount of water, raw materials, species, or products sourced from the environment.
**Economic value**: Assess the economic value contributed by each service to the business, which for example could include cost savings from natural water purification versus mechanical methods or revenues generated from ecotourism.
**Area**: For land-based services, calculate the area of ecosystem crucial for maintaining regulatory and supporting services. For example, geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to map and quantify area-based services.
**Ecosystem Services** are the benefits that humans receive from the natural environment which include:
**Provisioning services**: Products obtained from ecosystems, such as organisms, food, water, timber, and fiber.
**Regulation and maintenance services**: Benefits obtained from the regulation and maintenance of ecosystem processes, including pollination, air quality maintenance, climate regulation, water purification, soil quality regulation, and flood and disease control.
**Cultural services**: Non-material benefits obtained from ecosystems such as recreation, education, spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, and aesthetic experiences.
**[Nature's Contributions to People (NCP)](https://www.ipbes.net/glossary-tag/natures-contributions-people)** is the concept favoured by [IPBES](https://www.ipbes.net/). They include the contributions, both positive and negative, of nature to the quality of life of people. NCP can be categorized into three partially overlapping categories:
**Material contributions**: substances, objects or other material elements from nature that directly sustain people's physical existence and material assets, including food, energy and materials.
**Non-material contributions:** nature's effects on subjective or psychological aspects underpinning people's quality of life. This includes things like learning and inspiration, experiences and recreation, and supporting identities.
**Regulating contributions**: functional and structural aspects of organisms and ecosystems that modify environmental conditions experienced by people, or those that regulate the generation of material and non-material contributions. These include things like pollination, regulation of air and water quality, and regulation of climate and hazards.
human life and activities, including corporate activities, rely. Research shows that more than 50% of
global gross domestic product is directly linked to these ecosystem services (WEF and PwC, 2020),
exposing companies to significant nature-related dependencies, risks and opportunities. The 2024
Global Risks Report shows that the top four risks identified over the next ten years are all
environmental: extreme weather events, critical change to Earth systems, biodiversity loss and
ecosystem collapse, and natural resource shortages. Understanding and disclosing these factors is
essential for companies to develop resilient strategies and contribute to a sustainable economy.
Research Guidance:
Companies must:
**Identify the main ways it is dependent on nature **(e.g. **ecosystem services** or **nature's contributions to people**). This could include both direct dependence for their own operations or indirect dependence via their value chain. The dependence must be made explicit by the company. Vague or general references to a dependence on nature are insufficient to meet this element. Companies can use, for example, the ENCORE tool to identify those for their industry.
**Quantify the extent of dependence** on at least one identified ecosystem service, expressed in relevant units such as volume, area, or monetary value, to highlight the significance of these services to their business operations.
Example metrics that can be used for **quantifying the extent of dependence**:
**Volume or quantity**: For provisioning services, measure the amount of water, raw materials, species, or products sourced from the environment.
**Economic value**: Assess the economic value contributed by each service to the business, which for example could include cost savings from natural water purification versus mechanical methods or revenues generated from ecotourism.
**Area**: For land-based services, calculate the area of ecosystem crucial for maintaining regulatory and supporting services. For example, geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to map and quantify area-based services.
**Ecosystem Services** are the benefits that humans receive from the natural environment which include:
**Provisioning services**: Products obtained from ecosystems, such as organisms, food, water, timber, and fiber.
**Regulation and maintenance services**: Benefits obtained from the regulation and maintenance of ecosystem processes, including pollination, air quality maintenance, climate regulation, water purification, soil quality regulation, and flood and disease control.
**Cultural services**: Non-material benefits obtained from ecosystems such as recreation, education, spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, and aesthetic experiences.
**[Nature's Contributions to People (NCP)](https://www.ipbes.net/glossary-tag/natures-contributions-people)** is the concept favoured by [IPBES](https://www.ipbes.net/). They include the contributions, both positive and negative, of nature to the quality of life of people. NCP can be categorized into three partially overlapping categories:
**Material contributions**: substances, objects or other material elements from nature that directly sustain people's physical existence and material assets, including food, energy and materials.
**Non-material contributions:** nature's effects on subjective or psychological aspects underpinning people's quality of life. This includes things like learning and inspiration, experiences and recreation, and supporting identities.
**Regulating contributions**: functional and structural aspects of organisms and ecosystems that modify environmental conditions experienced by people, or those that regulate the generation of material and non-material contributions. These include things like pollination, regulation of air and water quality, and regulation of climate and hazards.
License
Topics
Framework Mappings
Value Type
Category
Options
Yes
No
Assessment
Steward Assessed
Report Type
Aggregate Data Report