SamBio for Businesses
Biodiversity and business are closely connected. Businesses depend on healthy ecosystems for raw materials, food, and other services. At the same time, business activities affect biodiversity, which can lead to business risks and obstacles to sustainable growth. Through the project SamBio – collaboration for biodiversity, we aimed to increase awareness within the business sector in Västra Götaland about these issues and create opportunities for collaboration focusing on biodiversity.
One of the project’s goals was to increase knowledge and engagement among businesses in topics related to biodiversity. This was achieved by bringing together business representatives with researchers, experts, and educators, using shared experiences as a starting point to inspire, inform, and build connections that promote biodiversity.
Within the project, we worked to:
- Establish and participate in both new and existing meeting places (events, training sessions, courses, workshops) where businesses in Västra Götaland can collaborate
- Create and develop new networks, partnerships, and relationships between businesses and SamBio’s partner organisations
- Develop tools (methods, materials, resources) for knowledge development and business collaboration
Some examples of activities carried out within the project include:
NETWORKS
- SamBio coordinates the Bee-Go initiative: The Memorandum for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Gothenburg Region is an agreement in which representatives from businesses, municipal administrations, and publicly owned companies have signed a declaration of intent to jointly take action to promote biodiversity and support ecosystem services.
- SamBio also worked to strengthen collaboration among the 22 partner organizations involved in the project on issues related to the business sector. The project involved researchers in biology, environmental science, social science, and business administration, as well as conservationists, species experts, communicators, and educators. They met regularly to exchange knowledge and experiences and to learn more about ongoing initiatives connecting biodiversity and business.
EVENTS
- We organised a session during the Swedish Biodiversity Symposium 21-23/10.
- SamBio organised a number of public and business-focused events, such as:
- “Technology for measuring biodiversity” at Universeum (Gothenburg, Nov 5, 2024)
- “Biodiversity challenges in the agriculture sector” (Uddetorp, Nov 14, 2024)
- “How can we manage invasive species?” at Nordens Ark (March 29, 2025)
- “Marine Biodiversity – for Businesses” (Tjärnö, April 9, 2025)
TOOLS
- SamBio has interviewed companies in Västra Götaland to gain a better understanding of their level of knowledge and current efforts related to biodiversity. The results have been compiled in this report.
- SamBio also helped to further develop a guide on biodiversity for small and medium-sized enterprises (in Swedish), in collaboration with Vildriket and the Biosphere Reserve Vänerskärgården with Kinnekulle.
Guide om biologisk mångfald för små och medelstora företag (pdf 26,1 mb) - In collaboration with Lund University (Mistra Biopath), SamBio created a Swedish version of the workshop concept Biodiversity Collage, which aims to increase understanding of what biodiversity is, how human activities affect it, and what actions can be taken to strengthen it.