In this first edition of a new series of insights and views from across ESB, our Group Biodiversity Lead Geoff Hamilton takes a deep dive into why biodiversity matters and how electricity companies like ESB are helping to restore, protect and enhance nature where they operate.
Talk to an engineer about the wind or solar farm they’re working on, and you would expect to hear about how many Gigawatts of energy it will generate or how many houses it can power. Yet talk to a renewables project manager at ESB today, and they are just as likely to mention the wildflower meadows to be established on site, or point out where the badger setts are located. Protecting and restoring natural habitats is becoming a routine part of building and managing electricity infrastructure, as awareness grows of the vital importance of biodiversity.
What is biodiversity?
In essence, the term biodiversity captures “the variety of life on earth”; a deceptively simple phrase that covers everything from microorganisms in our waterways, to bees and the flowers they pollinate, to birds, mammals and humans too. All these living things interact with the physical environment within finely balanced ecosystems, where every part affects every other – sometimes called ‘the web of life’.
Human activity has disrupted this balance, due to over-exploitation of resources, unsustainable development, and carbon emissions causing climate change. The result has been biodiversity loss on a massive scale. Globally, biodiversity authority IPBES has noted that native species in land-based habitats have fallen by at least 20% since 1900. In Ireland, one fifth of breeding birds are in long decline, over 20% of our wild bee species are threatened with extinction, and over half of native Irish plant species have declined in range and/or abundance.
This is a huge issue for Ireland and the world – environmentally, economically and socially. Biodiversity is the bedrock of ‘ecosystem services’: the natural processes that are essential to our society, economy, and health and well-being. Simply put, if we had to replace bees by pollinating all the world’s crops with mechanical means, for example, or build flood defences in place of natural plant drainage, the financial cost and human resources required would be immense.
What role do electricity utilities play?
This makes biodiversity an urgent priority for everyone in society. Electric utilities have an important role to play, as they own and manage large areas of land that are home to ecosystems of all kinds. Take ESB: our wind or solar farms are located in rural, coastland and offshore marine environments. Our hydropower stations interact with and directly alter the flows of various waterways, so we have a special duty to the wildlife and habitats found there. And the electricity distribution and transmission infrastructure owned and maintained by ESB Networks crosses all sorts of habitats across the country.
At a basic level, we have obligations under national and EU legislation to ensure biodiversity is protected where we operate. But we are committed to doing more. As outlined in our Sustainability Leadership Plan, we aim to be ‘nature positive’ in our operations by 2030. Protecting, restoring, and enhancing biodiversity in the ecosystems where we operate is a key part of that. Not only are we working to ensure no net loss of biodiversity, we aim to develop all new onshore sites for net gain – leaving them with a higher biodiversity value than before construction began.
A nature-positive approach to electricity infrastructure
What does being ‘nature-positive’ mean in practice? From a business perspective, this goal drives an organisation to reduce negative impacts on nature across their operations and value chain, while redirecting resources towards restoration and protection. To deliver this, a core approach is the ‘mitigation hierarchy’ – a step-by-step approach to ensure the least harm in any given situation. First, avoid impacts wherever possible; minimise whatever impacts you can’t avoid; where impact is unavoidable, restore habitats on-site; and offset residual impacts with compensatory measures on- or off-site.
Last year ESB Networks contributed to sector-specific guidance published by European industry body Eurelectric, which identified key measures to guide biodiversity action across the lifecycle of an infrastructure project: from design, consenting and permitting, to construction, operation and decommissioning. At ESB, many of these measures are already embedded in biodiversity management at existing sites and new developments. This can look like retaining natural habitats wherever possible, providing new habitats and feeding grounds for wildlife on-site, or integrating wildlife-friendly features.
Photograph: Wildflower meadow growing at an ESB Networks site in Portlaoise, Co Offaly.
Building capacity and working together
To mainstream biodiversity across the organisation, building capacity is key. We have a team of experienced ecologists based in our Engineering and Major Projects business unit, involved at all stages of projects. Within our new Centre of Sustainability, the Group Biodiversity Lead is tasked with driving biodiversity transformation across business units. And through training and awareness-raising we help staff, contractors and suppliers understand the value of biodiversity and advocate for it in their own roles.
Equally important is collaboration with other utilities, public bodies, research organisations, and local communities. Some of the partnerships we are involved with include:
We are a founding member of Business for Biodiversity Ireland: a cross-sector platform to incentivise business to deliver on biodiversity.
We are a key partner of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, bringing together sectors to create a landscape where pollinators can thrive.
We created and continue to sponsor the Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) Training Programme, delivered in conjunction with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.
We are part of the Nature+Energy research project, facilitating field trials at our Carnsore Wind Farm in Co Wexford.
We are stepping forward to sponsor the 2025 Hare’s Corner initiative, which delivers local practical biodiversity actions across the country.
We are contributing to the Leaders’ Forum on Nature Restoration, which brings together national representative organisations, business, academia and government to shape the vision for the national Nature Restoration Plan, to be delivered in 2026.
Biodiversity for net zero
Through our own work and collaborations like these, the electricity sector can become an engine to boost biodiversity across the country. Beyond the intrinsic value of protecting natural habitats, this also supports our goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Biodiversity and climate change are two sides of the same coin: healthy ecosystems can absorb more carbon from the atmosphere, while rising temperatures cause habitat change and biodiversity loss. Eurelectric cites one study showing that shifting from today’s status quo to a renewables-based energy system could reduce future biodiversity losses by 75%. As we move to a cleaner energy future, keeping biodiversity high on the agenda will be a win-win for the natural world and all of us who depend on it.