Unravelling biodiversity impacts of consumption: a supply chain decomposition analysis for the Netherlands

Unsustainable consumption patterns, especially in high income countries, are an important driver of biodiversity loss. This loss is caused by a variety of environmental pressures, including land use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, pollution and road use. Here we analysed the direct and indirect biodiversity impacts of Dutch final consumers using a multi-region input-output (MRIO) analysis, to examine in detail the location of impacts on biodiversity in the supply chain of products and services for Dutch final demand. Detailed insights on impacts via supply chains were obtained by performing a Production Layer Decomposition analysis, a novel approach in biodiversity footprints. As a metric for the biodiversity footprints we used the Mean Species Abundance (MSA) indicator, derived from the GLOBIO 4 model. Dutch consumption in 2015 resulted in a loss of 16 million MSA·ha·yr worldwide. Of this loss, 12% originated from consumers directly, 29% from production in the Netherlands for the final demand, and 59% from suppliers in upstream supply chains based abroad. Direct losses, due to activities of consumers themselves (households), include land use for housing, and GHG emissions from using fuels. Overall, housing and food contribute most to the Dutch biodiversity footprint. The decomposition analysis showed that housing also generates the largest loss in sectors directly producing for Dutch consumption, while the losses of goods and services lead to losses further upstream in their supply chains. The relevance of our findings is that to reduce biodiversity impacts of consumption, actors in different parts of the supply chain have to be targeted depending on the consumption category. Our study emphasises the necessity for distinct policy approaches for supply chain impacts, both national and international in scope, to reduce global biodiversity loss, whilst ensuring that any adverse impacts are not displaced to other nations. Findings are relevant in the context of EU policies of disclosure and reporting (CSRD) and due diligence for supply chain issues (CS-DDD).