Biodiversity offsets
Measurement answer
What this metric measures
Site-specific profile of an intervention intended to address residual biodiversity impacts after avoidance, minimization, and restoration, with purpose, location, area, quality controls, assurance, and financing effects visible.
Specification
Metric specification
- Result format
- Structured table
- Unit
- Structured table — see field-level units
- Reporting basis
- Project status at the reporting date with delivery dates
- Aggregation
- Never net offsets against gross impact or add overlapping project areas
- Pillar
- Environmental
- Topic
- Biodiversity, ecosystems and land
- Controlled domain
- Nature, biodiversity and land
- Entity type
- Metric
Reporting boundary
One offset-project profile addressing a named residual impact after mitigation-hierarchy actions. Offset activity remains distinct from restoration within the affected area, additional conservation, and gross impact.
Verified source occurrences
Framework coverage
This is one canonical metric. The bindings below show every verified framework occurrence without creating duplicate metric pages. Edition, disclosure, role, and relationship remain source-specific.
- Adopting Disclosurebiodiversity-offsets
CDP Full Corporate Questionnaire 2026
- Publisher
- CDP
- Edition
- Full Corporate Questionnaire and Reporting Guidance 2026 v1.3, revised 6 August 2026
- Requirement
- Conditional
- Relationship
- Reuses Canonical Metric
- Mapping outcome
- Reused
- Source locator
- Q11.14.1, numeric field 1
- Adopting DisclosureSource evidence
GRI Standards
- Publisher
- Global Reporting Initiative
- Edition
- Published 2024; effective for reporting from 1 January 2026
- Requirement
- Not Specified
- Relationship
- Defines Disclosure
- Mapping outcome
- Direct Evidence
- Source locator
- Effective-date notice and Disclosures 101-2, 101-5, 101-6, and 101-7, PDF pages 1–2 and 9–30
- Adopting Disclosuree8a15cecb056a678a576
TNFD Recommendations
- Publisher
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
- Edition
- September 2023
- Requirement
- Not Specified
- Relationship
- Reuses Canonical Metric
- Mapping outcome
- Reused
- Source locator
- Page 98, metric A23.6
- Adopting Disclosureeaa7ab0d5db2beadced5
TNFD Recommendations
- Publisher
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
- Edition
- September 2023
- Requirement
- Not Specified
- Relationship
- Reuses Canonical Metric
- Mapping outcome
- Reused
- Source locator
- Page 99, metric A24.4
Value structure
Dimensions and units
- Unit
- Structured table — see field-level units
- Reporting basis
- Project status at the reporting date with delivery dates
Unit meaning: This metric is reported as a structured table; each field carries the unit stated in the table fields below.
Table fields and units
- Offset identifier, residual impact, mitigation-hierarchy evidence, aim, and location
- Offset area (ha — hectares of the named project polygon; 1 ha = 10,000 m²)
- Ecosystem and species target, KPI value, and named KPI unit
- Standard, quality criteria, assurance, verifier, phase, deadline, and completion state
- Financing effect ([ISO 4217 currency] at stated scale and valuation basis), if reported
Published dimensions
- Offset project, residual impact, location, ecosystem, delivery state, KPI, and assurance
Disclosure method
Formula information
- Status
- Not applicable
- Formula type
- Structured Disclosure
Disclosure form
No single formulaPopulate the structured fields from qualifying source observations and retain each field-level unit, boundary, status, and method; do not collapse the disclosure into one calculated value.
Verified sources
Evidence and status sources
Sustopedia checked each record-specific claim directly against primary publisher material. Labels distinguish current measurement authority from future compatibility and corroborative, legal, edition, or method status context. Corroborative evidence can support a stated limitation but cannot establish the core measurement by itself.
Measurement evidence
- Measurement evidenceChecked 15 August 2026
GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024
- Publisher
- Global Reporting Initiative
- Edition
- Published 2024; effective for reporting from 1 January 2026
- Locator
- Effective-date notice and Disclosures 101-2, 101-5, 101-6, and 101-7, PDF pages 1–2 and 9–30
Supports: Official publisher reference linked specifically to the Sustopedia metric “Biodiversity offsets”; interpret it with the source-edition basis and limitations shown on this page.
Open official source
Use with context
Interpretation boundaries
Method disclosures required
Source-edition basis: Binding ESRS E4 offset structure and effective GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024; the July 2026 ESRS text is adopted-pending compatibility context only.
- Name the offset, residual impact, mitigation-hierarchy evidence, aim, location, polygon, ecosystem, and species targets.
- State project type, phase, standard, quality criteria, assurance, verifier, deadline, and completion state.
- State offset area in hectares, where 1 hectare equals 10,000 square metres, and keep each KPI with its own named unit.
- State any financing effect using an ISO 4217 currency, scale, sign convention, and valuation basis.
- Retain additionality, equivalence, permanence, stakeholder effects, and overlap controls.
Record-specific limitations
- Area and expenditure do not demonstrate ecological outcome, equivalence, additionality, or permanence.
- A planned project is not a delivered gain, and certification does not replace project-specific evidence.
- Unlike ecosystems, duplicate polygons, and incompatible quality methods cannot be aggregated.
Interpret this metric with the stated reporting boundary, period convention, value shape, and unit. Results prepared with different boundaries or conventions may not be directly comparable.
Measurement evidence supports the core record-specific claims described above. Corroborative evidence can support limitations, while compatibility and status sources provide their separately labelled context. None of these cards by itself determines an organisation's legal applicability, filing readiness, assurance status, or compliance conclusion.