ACT Biodiversity: EVEA Contributes to Testing the ADEME and OFB Evaluation Framework

Assessing a company's biodiversity strategy is about far more than arriving at a score. It calls for a combined reading of measured performance, the direction of travel, and the overall maturity of the approach being taken. That is precisely the ambition behind ACT Biodiversity, a methodology developed jointly by the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) and the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB).

The framework brings together three complementary dimensions: a quantitative performance score, a qualitative rating running from A to E, and a directional trend indicator showing whether progress is positive, stable, or in decline. Built on robust scientific foundations, it is designed to give a comprehensive picture of how companies embed biodiversity into their strategy and account for their impact on ecosystems.
 

EVEA at the heart of the pilot

EVEA was commissioned by ADEME and the OFB to put ACT Biodiversity through its paces with 13 companies drawn from a broad range of sectors: Séché Environnement, RATP Group, Bouygues Construction, Michelin, Renault Group, WDP, Yoplait (Coopérative Sodiaal), Carrefour, Cooperl, Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, Veolia, Eiffage, and ENGIE Solutions France.

Following this work, EVEA put forward a series of recommendations to sharpen the methodology, in particular by better accounting for the sectoral and operational realities that vary significantly from one industry to the next.
 

Genuine commitments, but value chains remain largely uncharted

The findings from this pilot phase point in a clear direction. Whilst the companies involved demonstrate real voluntary commitment, their efforts remain concentrated on the direct impacts of their own sites. Extending that lens across the full value chain, capturing biodiversity impacts and dependencies at every stage, and rethinking business models at a deeper level are tasks that have barely begun for most.

This sits squarely in line with the conclusions of the IPBES report published on 9 February, which examines the relationship between business and biodiversity.

A final version due in the second quarter of 2026

The insights gathered during this pilot will feed directly into the definitive version of ACT Biodiversity, due for release in the second quarter of 2026. It marks a significant step towards giving businesses a rigorous, practical reference tool; one capable of supporting genuinely transformative biodiversity strategies.