November 6, 2026 – Oikon hosted representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Swiss Contribution Office at the Embassy of Switzerland in Zagreb and the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO). The field visit took place within the Research Programme Croatia of the Second Swiss Contribution, which co-finances the participation of Croatian companies in Eurostars projects.
We presented GEOAI4ESRSE4, an integrated toolbox that brings together geographic information systems, Earth observation and artificial intelligence for reporting under the European Sustainability Reporting Standard on biodiversity and ecosystems (ESRS E4). Companies reporting under the standard need to assess their impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, including habitats and species, across their own operations and value chains, as well as their dependencies on natural resources and ecosystem services and the associated risks. Many lack the spatial data and specialised expertise in biodiversity assessment and sustainability reporting needed to carry out this work. Oikon coordinates the project with three Austrian partners: the Department of Geoinformatics of the University of Salzburg (Z_GIS), Spatial Services and ESG-Chain. Thirteen months into the eighteen-month project, 15 of the 25 planned deliverables have been completed.
The GEOAI4ESRSE4 toolbox automates compliance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standard on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (ESRS E4) by combining Geographic Information Systems (GIS), high-frequency Earth Observation (EO) satellite data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) predictive algorithms. In addition, it can transform complex ecological reporting into verifiable, spatially explicit business intelligence for risk management (covering the whole value chain tracking and early warnings for physical and transition risks) and provide companies with the defensible, audit-ready ESG proof needed to quantify biodiversity resilience and demonstrate the lower nature-related risks exposure required by green finance lenders.
The guests saw a live demonstration of the solution, from the collection of public data for each company site to the finished report, as well as the first runs on Oikon’s own server. Keeping the processing in house is a deliberate design choice. Sustainability reporting touches on site locations, operational data and findings a company has not yet published, so client data never leaves our premises and stays behind the strict protection measures of our ISO 27001 certified information security management system. For clients, that means the analysis and the data it is built on remain under a single, auditable chain of custody.
The discussion covered the progress of the project, our experience of implementation so far and the areas in which the solution can be applied. The project runs until 31 March 2027. We thank our guests for their visit and for the interest they showed in the work.
The project is co-financed by the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovations and Investments through the Eurostars programme, with European Union funds from the Horizon Europe programme and funds of the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme. Eurostars is part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs.