Nature Positive Northern Ostrobothnia

In the Nature-positive Pohjois-Pohjanmaa project, a county-level model for evaluating the effects of business activities on nature, especially nature-positivity, will be developed and launched by studying footprints and handprints. The nature positivity of business operations has not been systematically studied before even on a global level. The evaluation model complements the provincial climate work by taking into account the economic effects of nature loss and the business opportunities of the topic. The model can be used to evaluate the multifaceted impacts of business operations and the needs for the development of operations. This multi-capital perspective includes issues such as: Financial, Production, Intellectual, Human, Social, and Nature. The multi-capital perspective of the model will enable viewing an overall impact of the business in different areas and can be a basis of identifying how companies can achieve better outcomes on both financial and nature capitals.
The project is implemented at the University of Oulu as an interdisciplinary collaboration of different units. The province of Northern Ostrobothnia and the region's companies as well as other public actors will immediately benefit from the results of the project. In addition, the University of Oulu will directly benefit from the results of the project through the accumulation of expertise and know-how as well as interdisciplinary and cross-sector cooperation. Regarding the results, the target group and the users of the results are companies in the construction, tourism or ICT industries in North Ostrobothnia. The resulting evaluation model is also suitable for use in other industries. The results of the project can also be used in updating the climate road map of Northern Ostrobothnia and in county-level plans.