IPCC , this UN-sponsored organisation has today become the benchmark of our knowledge of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Another institution in this field is the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which will hold its congress in France in 2020 for politicians, industry, academics and civil society, with a view to promoting good environmental governance .

This issue is also emerging in companies, which are including the biodiversity factor in their action plans in increasing numbers. Mindful of this new challenge, some organisations are now training tomorrow s decision-makers and

entrepreneurs in the design of sustainable and bio-inspired solutions. For some of them, it has even become a strategic priority, along the lines of Act4nature. This initiative was launched by a group of companies, scientific institutions, NGOs, including the EpE3, of which SUEZ, BASF and LVMH are members, the Goodplanet Foundation and the French National Museum of Natural History. The goal? To create a collective dynamic on an international scale. In July 2018, the 65 signatories made their first ten commitments, including a promise to economically assess their impacts and their dependence on the proper workings of ecosystems, and to develop solutions based on nature as a priority. Companies should even now see themselves as ecosystems, like forests: why could they not deliver positive externalities and services free of charge to the other companies, the individuals and the nature around them? according to Navi Radjou, a theoretician of frugal innovation.

The ecosystem services are precious for human beings and nature, they have positive effects and must be preserved.

The forest plant: when companies think of themselves as ecosystems

10

OPENING