Biodiversity Multi-Scale Assessments of Product Systems - the BioMAPS Method

Land use and land use change are major drivers of biodiversity loss. A well-established tool for measuring such impacts throughout the life cycle of products and services is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Although valuable biodiversity impact assessment methodologies exist within LCA, they are still rarely used by companies and communities. This is mainly because existing methodologies are not globally applicable or provide insufficient decision support for LCA end-users.

This thesis therefore presents a new, globally operational method for analysing biodiversity impacts in LCA. The new Biodiversity Multi-Scale Assessment of Product Systems (BioMAPS) method is based on key ecological, conservation and technical requirements for LCA. It provides LCA end-users with a coherent framework for assessing the biodiversity impacts of product systems. Consequently, this methodology aims to mitigate negative impacts by identifying concrete actions at global, regional and local scales.