In the industrial and logistics sector, achieving "good" biodiversity performance requires balancing expansive building footprints and extensive paved infrastructure with sensitive risk management. High-performing assets minimize operational impacts on nearby ecological systems while actively maintaining or improving the environmental quality of the immediate surrounding site.
Defining "Good" Through Key Biodiversity Metrics
To understand what "good" looks like for a US industrial building, we look at four core metrics. A high-performing asset typically falls within the top 25% of the industrial asset class across these indicators.
1. Natural Cover (Top 25% Benchmark: >56%)
Natural cover represents the share of land within a 500m radius of a property that is green or natural rather than paved or artificial surfaces. While logistics centers and warehouses typically require heavy paving for transport, top-performing US industrial sites maintain a natural cover score above 56% in their immediate vicinity.
- Data Source: Based on the European Space Agency's dataset.
2. MSA Land Use (Top 25% Benchmark: >0.594)
Mean Species Abundance (MSA) serves as a proxy for ecosystem condition or ecological intactness. It measures how close the surrounding environment is to a natural state. For industrial assets, an MSA Land Use score above 0.594 indicates that the surrounding environment retains strong ecological integrity.
- Data Source: Combines European Space Agency data on land cover with the Globio model.
3. Biodiversity Sensitivity Exposure (Top 25% Benchmark: PASI <0.040)
The Protected Area Sensitivity Index (PASI) measures a building's proximity and exposure to protected or environmentally sensitive lands, weighting both the size of the protected area and its distance from the site.
- What this means for you: A lower score is better. Industrial assets with a PASI below 0.040 are safely buffered from sensitive ecosystems. This signals lower operational risk, fewer nature-related constraints, and streamlined compliance with changing local zoning and environmental regulations.
- Data Source: WDPA Protected Areas.
4. Threatened Species Total (Top 25% Benchmark: 0.00)
This metric tracks the nearby presence of species classified as threatened or at risk. It aggregates verified observations of Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable species reported within a 1km radius of the property over the last 10 years. For high-performing US industrial sites, the benchmark for "good" is 0, indicating a clean record of direct interface with at-risk species.
- Data Source: Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
US Industrial Asset Class Benchmarks
The following table outlines the median and top-performing (Top 25%) benchmarks for US industrial buildings, derived from Aura's comprehensive industrial dataset.
