Biodiversity+

Building a greener future

Biodiversity on the brink report

The continued loss of biodiversity is a huge threat to our planet, society and the economy. And our industry’s activities can have significant impacts on our natural world. We clearly recognised that we need to do more not just to stop the decline in biodiversity, but also to positively reverse that loss.

Our business is in transition: from a conventional (grey) model to an environmentally conscious (green) one, where construction doesn’t work against nature but with it. As part of this shift, preserving and promoting biodiversity is crucial.

So we’re taking specific action to help recover and improve biodiversity on our projects, as a core component of our sustainability strategy. We’re proud that we were the first contractor to sign the Nature Positive Business Pledge, in 2023.

83%

of wild mammals wiped out by humanity

420 million

hectares of forest have been converted to other land uses

£1.8 million

is the yearly cost of invasive Non-Native species to Great Britain

75%

of terrestrial environment 'severely altered' to date by human actions

Our commitment and actions: BAM Biodiversity+

Our new approach to improving practices, collaborations and opportunities, on our journey to becoming biodiversity-positive is focused around an initiative that we’ve called BAM Biodiversity+

Our starting points for BAM Biodiversity+ are our eight biggest biodiversity opportunities:

Creating habitats that promote biodiversity
Conserving natural resources
Establishing biological carbon sinks
Avoiding pollution
Implementing biosecurity
Promoting wellbeing
Collaborating with communities
Strengthening governance

BAM Biodiversity+ includes:

A library of biodiversity solutions, based on recognised national and international standards.
Our approach to assessing biodiversity risks and opportunities across our entire value chain, from raw material sourcing to the impacts of our projects and depots.
The Biodiversity+ Assessment: a comprehensive tool to evaluate our performance (efforts and contributions) against each of the key opportunities.

Why is Biodiversity so important?

Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth and it’s critical to our existence, as it provides the food we eat and the air we breathe.

Since 1970, animal populations have declined by 73% and in the last three decades 420 million hectares of forest has been taken over for other uses such as farming, according to the World Wildlife Fund and The World Bank.

Biodiversity is critical to our existence and to the UK economy, with over half (55%) of the world’s GDP moderately or highly reliant on it. Continued depletion of nature will have huge bearings on society as whole including the construction industry that is dependent on raw materials.

This is why we have made Biodiversity a cornerstone of our sustainability strategy. Recognising the significant impact that human activities, including those within the construction industry, have on the natural world, BAM are committed to preserving and enhancing biodiversity across all our work.

Biodiversity on the brink

BAM has made protecting nature a cornerstone of our sustainability strategy. But how does the rest of UK business view nature loss? Does it share our view?

We recently conducted a study with sustainability professionals across large private and public organisations to better understand how prepared they are for the growing biodiversity crisis.