Sustainable finance and biodiversity: the Belgian 2030 strategy confirms the need for an evidence framework - IRICE

Biodiversity as a project lever

Understand, structure, act. IRICE is publishing a series of short articles designed to help decision-makers integrate biodiversity into real estate projects in a clear, measurable and operational way. Aimed at local authorities, project owners, developers and investors, these articles address recurring sticking points, existing tools, and concrete levers for making biodiversity a project asset, not a formal constraint. ➤ All content is written by the IRICE team based on real cases, field feedback and shared experience.

Sustainable finance and biodiversity: Belgium's 2030 strategy confirms the need for an evidence framework

Published by IRICE - May 2025 Reference institute for independent certification of biodiversity performance in real estate, development and sustainable investment projects. The recent publication of Belgium's national biodiversity strategy for 2030 sends a clear signal on a European scale: biodiversity is becoming a structuring criterion in economic decision-making. For project promoters, investors, project owners and financial institutions, this development calls for a fundamental clarification: how can the real impact of a project on biodiversity be measured? And above all: how can we guarantee reliability, legibility and long-term comparability?

🧭 What the Belgian 2030 strategy says

The document, officially published by SPF Santé publique et Environnement, sets out a number of strong commitments:

Integrating biodiversity into economic and investment policies;
Mobilize private financing compatible with conservation objectives ;
Encourage players in the land, construction and development sectors to adopt measurable practices;
Encourage recognition of structuring tools and enforceable labels in environmental assessment.

This framework brings Belgium into line with European trends: green taxonomy, SFDR regulation, and the growing importance of ESG requirements in real estate portfolios.

🧩 What this means for real estate projects

Today, few projects can demonstrate :

their actual compatibility with the objectives of ecological non-regression;
their measurable positive impact on local ecological functions;
their alignment with comparable criteria audited on a European scale.

This is precisely what the Effinature approach is all about, and it's being extended to the French-speaking world.

🛠️ Effinature: a framework compatible with public and financial expectations

Effinature allows you to :

measure a project's biodiversity performance at the design stage (rather than after the fact);
structuring an environmental trajectory in line with European standards;
deliver independent certification, free from conflicts of interest, based on a robust, interoperable and verifiable method.

The reference system includes :

functional and spatial indicators,
an analysis of pressures and cohabitation,
opposable evidence of the site's actual ecological quality.

🌍 An opportunity for Belgian players

The Belgian biodiversity strategy explicitly invites economic players to join a collective dynamic: the Belgian Biodiversity Alliance (BBA). For such a dynamic to produce lasting effects, it will need to be based on solid methodological frameworks.

Effinature can help.

In line with the RE2020, BREEAM, HQE or European taxonomy approaches, Effinature provides the missing living dimension: that of soils, webs and ecological functions.

🔍 Conclusion: demonstrating rather than asserting

At a time when public strategies are being structured around biodiversity, one certainty is emerging: it's no longer the rhetoric that convinces, it's the demonstration.

IRICE is ready to make an independent contribution to anchoring this requirement in public-interest projects and responsible investment strategies.

https://www.biodiv.be/sites/be/files/2025-04/FR_NatBioStrat-final.pdf