Are there facilities in or next to a protected natural area?

Facility locations in relation to natural area

This is a factual question about the location of facilities, not an assessment question about impact or policy. The answer consists of a simple check: are the addresses of your own facilities (owned or rented) located within or directly bordering an area that has protected status, such as Natura 2000, a national park or a comparable designation. For SMEs without production locations with significant environmental impact this is often quick to answer with "no", but in case of doubt a check against an official map of protected areas is needed before you enter "no".

It is a different type of question than the questions about environmental permits: where Does the company have the required environmental permits? concerns whether you have the right documents for your own activity, this question is purely about geography — the qualification of the land around it, independent of what your company itself emits or is licensed for. A company with no emissions whatsoever may still have to answer "yes" if the building is within the boundaries of a designated area. Conversely, a company with a significant environmental permit can simply answer "no" if the location is outside any protected area. Check this per facility separately: with multiple locations one "yes" for the whole is enough to have to answer the question with "yes", even if the rest of the facilities are clean.

Where this comes from: VSME Basic Module, biodiversity indicator

This question comes from the basic module of the VSME standard of EFRAG, in the section on environmental indicators where next to energy, emissions and waste there is also a question about sensitive locations. It is specifically about a location check, not an impact assessment: you are not asked what the impact is, only whether the location is within or adjacent to the boundaries of a protected area. Like What is the water consumption per year? is this an indicator that stands on its own and requires no calculation — only a determination per facility address.