Biodiversity and ecosystems

ESRS 2 SBM-3; ESRS E4-1

The construction industry has a significant impact on biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide, particularly along the upstream value chain. This is most evident in the extraction of raw materials used in the production of building materials. Land use and land-use change associated with construction projects represent a major challenge for global flora, fauna and funga. At the same time, soil sealing leads to the loss of important soil functions, which in turn can impair natural habitats and threaten species diversity, particularly in biodiversity-sensitive areas.

Three risk categories are distinguished within the materiality assessment. Systemic risks such as climate change, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss affect the entire value chain over the long term – directly through raw material scarcity and indirectly through changing regulatory and market conditions. This results in significant dependencies on the availability of natural resources and stable ecological conditions, both of which are essential for business activities. To address these risks, construction projects are subject to legally mandated mitigation and protection actions (e.g. environmental impact assessments) complemented by voluntary standards. Transition risks arise primarily from potential regulatory changes, for example stricter material requirements, as well as from climate-related resource scarcity, which can lead to rising raw material costs and supply bottlenecks. Physical risks are currently not classified as material, but exist at the interface with climate change and resource availability, as extreme weather events can cause damage to extraction sites and ecosystems.

Alongside these risks, the construction sector also offers opportunities to limit negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems and to reduce existing impairments. Through forward-looking planning, consideration of ecological sensitivities and the implementation of legally required mitigation and restoration measures, impacts on flora, fauna and funga can be minimised and impaired ecosystem functions partially restored. Additional actions – such as the resource-efficient use of materials, the reduction of soil sealing and biodiversity-sensitive infrastructure concepts – also help to avoid further pressure on natural habitats and to mitigate regulatory and ecological risks over the course of projects.

STRABAG faces both risks and opportunities arising from the interaction between its business activities and biodiversity protection. In light of global environmental change and stricter legal requirements, precise management of these factors is becoming increasingly important in order to mitigate biodiversity-related risks. The materiality assessment and the site-specific risk analyses serve as initial reference points for enabling a future resilience analysis of the business strategy and business model.

A total of 19 STRABAG sites are located in ecologically sensitive areas and therefore exhibit an elevated nature-related risk profile. The assessment includes location-bound facilities such as asphalt, concrete and emulsion mixing plants as well as landfills, recycling facilities, gravel and sand pits, quarries, aggregate pits and workshops. Identification is based on a further developed methodology that combines site-specific nature-related risks with the geographic location of sites within or near designated biodiversity and protected areas. A detailed breakdown of sites according to identified impacts and dependencies, as well as according to the ecological condition of the respective areas, is currently under development. Such a presentation is not yet possible, as the biodiversity-related data foundation is still being developed. Within the materiality assessment, no significant negative impacts related to land degradation or desertification were identified.

Policies

ESRS E4-2

Due to its close links with other environmental topics, biodiversity is addressed in several cross-cutting policies, particularly in the Environmental and Energy Policy and the Supply Chain Management Policy. All policies apply Group-wide and are approved by the STRABAG SE Management Board. The policies listed below set out the key impacts, risks and opportunities relating to biodiversity within our own operations and along the value chain. Other biodiversity-related aspects that are not material for STRABAG – such as invasive species and desertification – are currently not addressed in these two documents. Likewise, there are no Group-wide policies for land use and agriculture or for oceans and seas. The documents are reviewed at regular intervals with regard to their suitability and effectiveness and adjusted where necessary.

Biodiversity and ecosystems form a central topic within the Environmental and Energy Policy, which was revised in 2025 and approved by the STRABAG SE Management Board in the first quarter of 2026. The policy establishes the principle that biodiversity and (water) ecosystems must be protected and promoted across all relevant areas of business activity. The objective is to reduce negative impacts on flora, fauna and funga, strengthen biodiversity across all project phases and at sites located in biodiversity-sensitive areas, raise employee awareness and provide training, ensure the sustainable extraction and use of raw materials and guarantee responsible land use. Responsibility for implementing the Environmental and Energy Policy lies with the CEO.

Also approved in the 2025 financial year was the revised Supply Chain Management Policy, which addresses the topic of biodiversity. The policy combines environmental and social responsibility along the entire value chain. Environmental due diligence obligations are intended to protect habitats for both people and wildlife. To ensure transparency in supply chains, STRABAG relies on traceability of materials and services as well as deforestation-free supply chains.

In 2023, the Management Board of STRABAG SE also adopted a Group-wide position paper on biodiversity. The document provides clear and practical guidance and recommendations for protecting biodiversity and species in construction projects. Serving as a supporting document to the Environmental and Energy Policy, it provides information to raise employee awareness of biodiversity and offers guidance for environmentally responsible planning and construction processes. Together with the Environmental and Energy Policy, the paper forms the basis for deriving concrete biodiversity protection actions. The guidelines include minimising land consumption, emissions and environmental impacts as well as implementing further actions to reduce impacts on flora, fauna and funga during construction projects.

Actions and projects

ESRS E4-3

The following biodiversity-enhancing actions are already being undertaken at STRABAG:

STRABAG, in coordination with local authorities and stakeholders, continuously implements site-specific actions at the Group’s own extraction sites to minimise its ecological footprint and ensure restoration and renaturation. Nature conservation requirements are defined for each site individually and documented in approval plans. Examples include the creation of replacement biotopes, extensive grassland management, reforestation and the creation of habitats for bird species and amphibians. In addition, regular ecological assessments are carried out to review the effectiveness of these actions and to identify further potential for site-specific initiatives. This ensures that interventions in nature are minimised, land is used sustainably and key ecosystem services are preserved in the long term.

Certain construction projects are also subject to statutory and regulatory requirements mandating environmental impact assessments (EIAs). An environmental impact assessment ensures that potential environmental impacts are identified and assessed during the planning and design phase, enabling appropriate mitigation and compensation measures to be developed and implemented. This approach is also applied in countries outside the European Union, for example through environmental impact assessments for certain public- and private-sector construction projects, in accordance with the respective legal requirements.

In the field of transportation infrastructure in Germany, STRABAG follows a sustainable construction site concept in line with the standards set by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). Under this concept, biodiversity criteria are considered for the certification of construction sites with a duration of more than three months. This certification takes into account compliance with biodiversity-promoting actions such as the use of environmentally friendly technologies and processes, minimisation of soil sealing and consideration of local flora, fauna and funga.

Targets

ESRS E4-4

To date, STRABAG has not defined any quantitative targets relating to biodiversity and ecosystems. As part of the further development of the Group-wide biodiversity management system, work is currently under way to develop appropriate metrics that could serve as a basis for establishing quantitative targets in the future.

Metrics

ESRS E4-5

For reporting on sites located in biodiversity-sensitive areas, STRABAG fundamentally revised its site-specific risk analysis in 2025. The approach enables the targeted identification of relevant sites and assessment of their nature-related dependencies and impacts. On this basis, regional requirements and project-specific actions can be developed for sites located in biodiversity-sensitive areas. The analysis follows a two-stage process that combines site-specific data with global biodiversity information. The result is an individual Nature Risk Score for each site.

Sites with a consolidated risk score above a defined threshold were initially classified as potentially material within the site-specific risk analysis. This first step resulted in a corridor of 35 sites whose risk profile indicates heightened relevance for biodiversity reporting. A sensitivity analysis was subsequently carried out for these 35 sites with elevated risk levels. The analysis identified 26 sites located within or near sensitive areas. In a further step, sites without economic activity were identified and excluded from the analysis, reducing the number of material sites to 19. Spatial proximity to sensitive areas was determined using activity-based buffer zones reflecting the potential impact area of the respective economic activities.

The process is currently being further developed and will be refined over the coming years, particularly with regard to the integration of additional indicators, consideration of site-specific actions and the establishment of further KPIs for biodiversity management. The aim is to capture nature-related risks consistently across the Group and to further standardise reporting in line with the ESRS requirements.

Sites located in biodiversity-sensitive areas

The current figures are not comparable with those of the previous year because the methodology was comprehensively adjusted following the introduction of a new risk analysis tool. Whereas the previous year’s assessment focused on sites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland using screening tools with relatively coarse resolution, the approach in the current reporting period has been expanded across the Group and replaced with a significantly more precise analytical tool. This development enables a more granular and accurate assessment. The lower number of reported sites therefore reflects improved risk differentiation rather than an actual reduction in risk.

Due to the introduction of the new analysis tool, a retrospective determination of the metrics for 2024 was not technically possible. For the classification and interpretation of the 2024 data, reference is therefore made to STRABAG’s 2024 Annual and Sustainability Report.