EC Expert Publication on the Nature-Positive Economy Launched at EBNS 2025
The latest European Commission Expert Publication entitled “Policy Imperatives for a Resilient and Competitive Nature-Positive Economy” was launched on Friday 24th of October at the European Business and Nature Summit 2025 in Helsinki, Finland. The publication was developed under NetworkNature’s NbS Task Force 3: Finance and Business Models (for NbS) in a Nature-Positive Economy and coordinated by the Invest4Nature project.
Urban Nature Plans+ was among the 45 EU funded research and innovation projects that formed the evidence basis for the publication. The launch was part of a business and policy discussion on Rationale and Roadblocks for Business Transformation to Nature Positive, jointly led by Horizon Nua and Trinity College Dublin. The technical session was moderated by Director of Horizon Nua, and one of the lead authors of the EC expert publication, Dr. Siobhan McQuaid.
Speakers and panellists included Maija Bergström, Project Manager (VALUE project) from The City of Helsinki Urban Environment Division; Pavel Dostal, CEO of a nature-based enterprise, known as GreenVille; Claudia Pérez Casas, Environment and Energy Specialist at Sacyr, a large infrastructure company from Spain; and Fleur Van Ooststroom Brummel, Policy Officer for Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions at the European Commission.
The session focused on Nature-based Solutions for urban greening and green infrastructure. One of the speakers and panellists was Pavel Dostal, CEO of GreenVille, a green roofs provider based in the Czech Republic, and Vice-President of the European Federation of Green Roof and Living Wall Associations (EFB).
Pavel espoused the benefits of biodiverse green roofs in terms of its social and ecological value (i.e. water retention, reducing urban overheating and increasing biodiversity). These installations can introduce greenery into increasingly urbanised and densely populated areas. According to Pavel: “The benefits for biodiversity are great, the benefits for the customer are even better”.
Image I: (L-R) Siobhan McQuaid, Claudia Pérez Casas, Pavel Dostal, Maija Bergström and Fleur Van Ooststroom Brummel.
Another panellist was Maija Bergström from the VALUE project which aims to strengthen the green structure in densely built cities to promote climate change preparedness and adaptation. Maija spoke of one of the project’s key outputs, the development of a method for urban planners to measure and estimate the impact that the land use will have on green infrastructure. The method was co-created with researchers, urban planners, policy makers and companies.
According to Maija: “In densely built cities, we need to ensure that we are prepared for the changing climate, and guarantee adaptation in every urban block and road. Businesses like Sacyr and GreenVille are essential in providing the infrastructure, and they need backup from us policy makers.”
Image II: Pavel Dostal and Maija Bergström.
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