Most EDF industrial facilities – power plants, dams, wind farms, power lines, etc. – are located in or near natural areas and have an impact on their fauna and flora.
EDF Group wants to move forward in its biodiversity approach by learning what it can do better and avoiding irreversible damage to the environment whenever possible. What EDF does not want to do is to limit itself to a defensive approach that focuses solely on reducing the impacts of its industrial activities on ecosystems.
Commitments reinforced
EDF has joined two major biodiversity initiatives supported by France: “Entreprises Engagées pour la Nature – act4nature France” and “act4nature International”.
EDF has built its pro-active biodiversity programme around three factors: the five direct drivers of change in nature identified by IPBES*; analysis of the company’s main impacts on ecosystems; and its strategic development programme through to 2030, especially its CSR policy.
* The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is an international group of experts in biodiversity (the equivalent for biodiversity of the IPCC for climate change).
France
EDF has joined the initiative Entreprises Engagées pour la Nature – act4nature France created by OFB, the French biodiversity agency, under the government’s National Biodiversity Strategy. The aim of the initiative is above all to spur companies to make concrete commitments to biodiversity. A continuous improvement approach is installed by ensuring that businesses gradually take better account of biodiversity and that those which are already working on the subject take additional measures. Businesses are obliged to submit their own commitments, which must be SMART (specific, measurable, additional, realistic, timely).
International
EDF has joined the act4nature International initiative started by the French non-profit organisation Entreprises pour l’Environnement (EpE) to stimulate companies to protect, enhance and restore biodiversity. The aim of the initiative is to involve major French companies that have global operations. The companies sign up to 10 common commitments and submit their own SMART (specific, measurable, additional, realistic, timely) commitments.
EDF supports the Local Vegetal brand
EDF supports the Local Vegetal brand
This brand is a tool for tracing wild and local plants. It guarantees and preserves genetic diversity in 11 biogeographical regions of France. The EDF group is a partner of the French Biodiversity Office, which carries the local plant brand. Preserving biodiversity is one of the company's 16 corporate social responsibility commitments.
Local plants to strengthen biodiversity and to boost economy in Romanche valley
Local plants to strengthen biodiversity and to boost economy in Romanche valley
In Isère department (Center of France), EDF built a new dam upon the Romanche river. The Group worked with the Conservatoire botanique national alpin (National Botanic Association in the Alpes Mountain) to develop a revegetation project of the river banks with local species. This project allowed the development of vegetal oils producers on territories.
Recreation of a former inland delta of the Rhine river
Recreation of a former inland delta of the Rhine river
With his partner La Petite Camargue Alsacienne, EDF works to recreate around an ancient branch of the Rhine river, an hundred of hectares of humid and dry areas, as they were before.
Partners in action
EDF needs the support of the association and scientific worlds to implement its biodiversity projects. In France, the company has implemented a durable partnership policy focused on 3 areas:
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Contributing to the development of our actions in favor of biodiversity
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Benefiting from scientific skills to achieve these actions
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Training our employees and making the general public aware of this issue
French Committee of the International Union for Nature Conservation
Strategic support since 2008: integration of the stakes in terms of biodiversity and transformation of the professional practices
The French Committee of the UICN supports EDF in its different commitments in favour of biodiversity, in particular the one related to the national Strategy for biodiversity and brings its expertise next to the different EDF business-lines. It helped the company to design a collection of biodiversity guides to develop the employees’ knowledge in terms of electricity production business-lines. EDF and the French Committee of the UICN exchange on issues and specific tools such as the Solutions based on Nature, the renewable energies or on the biodiversity reporting.
Download the 2008-2020 balance sheet of the partnership [in French] (PDF, 4 Mb)
Fédération des Conservatoires d'Espaces Naturels*
Sharing-out of experience and support to the on-site biodiversity preservation
The Federation of the CNS federates the 23 regional Conservatories of Natural Spaces (CNS) which mission is the preservation of nature, of species, of environments and of landscapes. They develop in particular actions of scientific knowledge, of land control, of site management and of awareness.
The specific competences of the CNS make of them privileged interlocutors and in particular competent to support EDF and its subsidiaries, in particular those dedicated to renewable energies respect to the implementation of the commitments of the Companies Involved for nature. The partnership also allows the sharing-out of experience respect to precise issues common to the CNS and to EDF (site ecological maintenance, fight against the alien invasive species and the light pollution, maintenance through pastoralism, ecological compensation, awareness to the ecological stakes, etc.).
More about the actions of CEN's network [in French]
* Federation of the Conservatories of Natural Spaces.
Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux*
Ecology management and bird fauna inventory methods
An annual partnership conference has brought together teams from EDF and the LPO since 2012, with the focus on a programme of exchanging skills and knowledge in order to improve company practices and promote biodiversity. At some 20 EDF sites, the LPO collects data on natural environments and the species present to improve understanding of the problems to be faced and encourage the adoption of practical measures. The league works with EDF on raising employees’ awareness of local biodiversity. On a more general level, the LPO has also investigated the impact of worksites on biodiversity in terms of noise, dust and light.
More about the actions of LPO [in French]
* French League for the Protection of Birds
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle*
Inventory methods, data management, qualification of EDF’s natural heritage
Within the framework of this scientific collaboration, EDF tests in particular the methods and tools developed by the Department of the natural assets of the museum to characterise the quality of its land heritage and its relationships with the ecosystems and the neighbouring territories. The initiated works thus contribute to a better management of the terrestrial biodiversity and support EDF in its reflections in terms of ecological restoration and compensation.
More about the Unité Mixte de Service PatriNat [in French]
More about the actions of MNHN
* French Natural History Museum
Fédération des conservatoires botaniques nationaux*
Ecology management, mainly for sites to be restored
The partnership between the FCBN and EDF is focused on replanting areas using local vegetation. This mainly concerns redevelopment of natural areas, construction sites and installations being dismantled. The FCBN provides EDF with its expertise in revegetation to conserve soil fertility, prevent site and river bank erosion, avoid the use of invasive species and re-establish ecological continuity. EDF sits on the local Végétal committee: this label is managed by the FCBN and ensures that wild plants used for revegetation projects are endemic and have been locally sourced.
Download the 2015-2020 balance sheet of the partnership [in French] (PDF, 3.76 Mb)
More about the actions of the FCBN
* French Federation of Botanical Conservatories
Conservatoire du littoral*
Environmental and territorial issues around major lakes
EDF and the Conservatoire du littoral are restoring areas of garrigue where rosemary and lavender grow on the Côte Bleue massif between the Etang de Berre lagoon and the Mediterranean Sea. They have begun an inventory of the site’s wild pollinators and a study of their relation with domestic bees as part of a programme to support traditional apiculture.
More about the actions of the Conservatoire du littoral [in French]
* French Agency for the Protection of Coastlines
Fête de la Nature*
Week of nature-based events to raise public and EDF employees’ awareness
For the past 10 years, the Fête de la Nature has been France’s flagship nature experience. The general public can discover or rediscover local natural treasures through events organised throughout the country. EDF has been partnering the Fête de la Nature since its creation. Every year, as part of the festival, the company organises visits to natural areas near its installations in collaboration with local actors, environmental associations in particular.
Visit the "Fête de la Nature" website [in French]
* Nature Festival