A web platform to connect cities with companies offering NBS
The
project Connecting Nature, which we already talked
about a few month ago,
takes another step towards its goal of connecting European realities that can
help implement NBS, that is Nature Based Solutions, and make cities more
resilient and sustainable. Now the focus moves on the nature based companies,
from landscape architects to ecosystem restoration experts, which play a key
role in helping cities to plan, provide, manage and supervise nature based solutions. The demand for Nature Based
Solutions, due to climate change, has increased exponentially in the last
years, also thanks to the fact that many studies have underlined how NBS could
provide around 30% of the mitigation required to stabilize global warming below
2 degrees centigrade. In July 2020, the IUCN (International Union for Nature
Conservation) published the first global standard for nature based solutions to
further increase their adoption. This context involves a new challenge,
precisely because cities around the world require more and more nature based
solutions and they have problems to find qualified and expert suppliers in
order to satisfy the growing demand. Connecting Nature intends to help overcome
this obstacle, opening the way to a new field of research about the nature
based companies’ ability of satisfying this demand. The chosen tool is “Nature Based
Enterprise”, a new global platform that directly connects the
market demand (cities and private sector
buyers of nature based solutions) with the offer (innovative companies that provide sustainable nature based solutions). The Metropolitan City of Bologna is one of the institutional partners of the Connecting Nature project and it coordinates and animates two communities of the
platform, precisely the one for nature based
organizations and the one for sustainable
agriculture. John Bell, Director of the EU strategy “Healthy Planet”, will officially
launch this new platform on October 21st, during a webinar event focused on
nature based economy. The title of the webinar is “Imprese basate sulla natura che offrono il
Green Deal”. It will take place from 10 to 11.30 a.m. and it will be attended
by mayors, environmental agencies, economy developers and, of course,
companies. You can go to this link to register for the webinar and the launch