Guidance & Resources
What is Nature Positive?
NATURE POSITIVE means halting and reversing nature loss so that species and ecosystems start to recover.
For a university, being NATURE POSITIVE means restoring species and ecosystems that have been harmed by the impacts of a university and its activities and enhancing the university’s positive impacts on nature.
This refers to everything a university does, from its teaching and research work to the operations and supply chains that keep it running.
To be NATURE POSITIVE there must be a measured biodiversity baseline, timeframe, a target, clear actions, analysis of how actions add up, monitoring and transparent reporting.
Everyone’s going Nature Positive – but what does it mean? A blog post by Professor E.J. Milner-Gulland
Assessing your baseline
- You can choose your metrics and scope to measure your impacts on biodiversity
- You may decide to start with completing a baseline study of the biodiversity present on campus and university-owned land
- Supply chain impacts can be estimated by collecting university purchasing data, such as paper and lab supplies, equipment, food and building materials.
- Purchasing data can be converted into impacts such as eutrophication, land, water and climate, then can be converted into a proxy biodiversity metric to allow comparisons of relative impacts
Find out how Oxford carried out its baseline
Jyväskylä University study (in Finnish)
Setting SMART targets for nature
- Targets must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound
- Writing or reviewing a sustainability strategy is a great time to do this
- Ambitious targets can be institution-wide encompassing campus buildings, grounds, operations and supply chains.
- Depending on what is acceptable to your university community, targets could also be just for specific aspects, such as “Biodiversity net gain for food purchasing by 2035” or “No net loss of forests associated with university paper procurement by 2025”
- Wide consultation with different stakeholders is key to gauging ambition and achieving buy-in for your targets.
Actions and Influence
- Prioritise actions based on feasibility, risks, costs, and acceptability to your university community using the Conservation and Mitigation hierarchy, also known as the 4Rs (Refrain, Reduce, Restore and Renew)
- Decide which will get implemented first and calculate how far they will get you towards your overall goal
- Monitor, evaluate and adapt the options to achieve your goal and targets
- Check out the 10 UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration principles for good restoration activities if planning to mitigate your biodiversity impacts
- Promote nature positive concepts and action through education, community engagement and outreach within the university and wider community
- Check out our Case Studies page for more actions taken by members of the Nature Positive Universities network and to submit your own stories.
Reporting Annually
- We will ask you to commit to transparent reporting of progress on an annual basis starting in October 2023 towards reducing your impacts on nature, according to the four aspects of the pledge.
Nature Positive journey
- We are excited to facilitate universities working together to share their Nature Positive journeys and experience.
- Please let us know if you would like to help facilitate a Nature Positive Hub in your country or region.
We would love to share your stories
Please let us know what nature positive actions you are taking on your campus