Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform
A market place linking potential buyers with suppliers of nature-based solutions
The Connecting Nature Enterprise platform is an online marketplace connecting potential buyers (cities and private sector ‘buyers’ of nature-based solutions) with suppliers of nature-based solutions (innovative enterprises and start-ups developing new sustainable nature-based solutions) on a global scale) who can help to design, deliver, manage and monitor NBS.
What needs the platform meets?
- Demand for nature-based solutions has increased exponentially in line with recognition that they could provide around 30% of the mitigation required to stabilise warming to below 2oC (Seddon et al 2019). The concept has been mainstreamed by policy makers from the UN to the EC and in July 2020 the IUCN published the first global standard for nature-based solutions to further increase take-up.
- However recent research (UnaLab 2020) has shown that finding skilled suppliers of nature-based solutions is a major challenge.
- The Connecting Nature Enterprise platform responds to this challenge head-on with a new online marketplace connecting potential buyers with suppliers of nature-based solutions who can help to design, deliver, manage and monitor NBS.
- These ‘nature-based enterprises’ offer significant opportunities for realising the Green Deal and helping Europe achieve its goals of a sustainable economy by 2050. This emerging market sector is opening up a new area for innovation and an emerging area for financial investment.
The platform is open to everyone. We encourage you to visit the website and get involved:
On the Platform, you can create a user profile and organization/NBE profile, showcase your products/services, or share relevant ‘Opportunities’. You can connect with enterprises and organisations in the same sector ‘Communities’. Communities and Clusters are moderated by ambassadors and have regular meet-ups to discuss the latest developments ‘Challenges’. The Metropolitan City of Bologna is involved in the animation of two communities:
• Nature-based Organisations and
• Sustainable Agriculture and Food chain.
This platform is a stand-alone innovation developed in the Connecting Nature project, a five-year €12m Horizon 2020 project focusing on the large-scale implementation of nature-based solutions to build climate resilience in cities.
