New ESG Lab publication — Why finance can no longer ignore the value of ecosystems

What if one of the biggest blind spots in sustainable finance was... nature itself?
The ESG Lab at the Louis Bachelier Institute publishes a new reference study devoted to valorization of ecosystems — a subject that is still poorly integrated into financial decisions, even though it conditions long-term economic stability.

This report offers a lucid and structured reading of a question that has become essential: How to make the value of living beings visible, measurable and integrable in economic and financial models?

A report to understand... and act!

Rather than providing ready-made answers, this publication invites rethinking the very foundations of sustainable finance.
It is aimed at all those who wish to go beyond an ESG approach focused solely on carbon and explore the real levers of ecological resilience.

Throughout the pages, the reader is led to:

• Clarifying the often-confused concepts of biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services ;
• understand why the lack of valuation of natural capital still distorts economic signals today;
• Measure the systemic risks associated with inaction, for businesses, investors and territories.

Expert insights at the heart of the debate

The report is based on a in-depth review of academic work and on a series of interviews conducted in 2025 with key players in the academic, public and financial worlds.
Their feedback from the field highlights the concrete brakes to the adoption of these approaches: methodological complexity, lack of standards, regulatory constraints (in particular Solvency II), but also the gap between ecological cycles and financial horizons.

These testimonies give the report a resolutely operational dimension, far from a purely theoretical analysis.

An unprecedented overview of valuation methods

One of the major contributions of this publication lies in its structured summary of approaches to the valorization of ecosystems :

• economic methods,
• qualitative approaches,
• natural capital accounting frameworks.

Each is analyzed with its promises, limitations and concrete implications for financial actors.
The report shows why, despite the existence of numerous tools, their adoption is still marginal — and what this means for the future of sustainable finance.

Beyond carbon: rethinking sustainability

Through concrete examples, the report highlights the limitations of an approach exclusively focused on carbon.
It shows how some apparently virtuous solutions can weaken ecosystems, territories and communities when they do not take into account the complexity of living things.

This analysis paves the way for broader thinking: integrating biodiversity and ecosystems is not an addition to soul, but a condition for the credibility and effectiveness of ESG strategies.

Essential reading for players in sustainable finance

This publication is aimed in particular at:

• to investors and insurers,
• to the ESG and CSR teams,
• to public decision-makers,
• to researchers and practitioners of sustainable finance.

It constitutes a reference resource for any organization wishing to anticipate regulatory changes, better understand its dependencies on nature and integrate the value of living beings into its strategic decisions.

We invite you to discover the entire report to deepen these analyses, explore the methods in detail and understand the levers of action identified by the ESG Lab.

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ESG Lab report — Louis Bachelier Institute
By: Lucas Schnyder & Ana Vallejo

For any questions or exchanges:

• LinkedIn: Lucas Schnyder/Ana Vallejo
• E-Mail: esglab@institutlouisbachelier.org

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