BioDiMoBot at the EU Green Week 2026: Investing in a nature‑positive economy

BioDiMoBot partner SYRION engages with investors and stakeholders at the European Commission’s flagship conference on environmental policy

Photo credit: Werner Rom (SYRION)

Around 50% of the world’s economy is moderately or highly dependent on nature, a context that framed this year's EU Green Week, held in Brussels on 3-4 June and organized by the European Commission’s DG Environment. The event underscored that protecting and restoring nature is not only an environmental necessity but also a strategic economic opportunity for Europe. Under the motto “Investing in a nature‑positive economy” it brought together EU institutions, businesses, investors, farmers, cities, NGOs and young people to discuss how nature can support resilience, competitiveness and quality of life.

BioDiMoBot, represented by Werner Rom (SYRION), presented its concept for an autonomous robotic monitoring system for aquatic environments and was able to significantly broaden its European network. BioDiMoBot gained visibility through a presentation made accessible to all conference participants via the event portal, as well as through targeted bilateral meetings with investors and with representatives of companies and research organizations from across Europe.

The conference program included high-level panels, TED-style talks and a dedicated startup-investor matchmaking events, which created a strong setting for exchange with potential investors and partners. In addition, the BioDiMoBot representative took part in investor pitch sessions and attended plenary discussions on investment in nature, business models and nature credits, among others.

Below are a few key points and highlights from EU Green Week 2026:

• Examples of different business models presented in TED-style company talks include the food producer McCain, which is facing approximately 10% yield losses among its potato suppliers due to increasing droughts and therefore has a clear incentive to strengthen the resilience of natural resources for the future; the packaging company NotPla, which develops environmentally friendly packaging materials made from seaweed instead of plastic; and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which uses the blue blood of horseshoe crabs in quality control to test vaccines and medicines for bacterial contamination, giving it a strong interest in preserving the habitats of these animals.

• Discussions on biodiversity and nature credits highlighted the importance of credibility, safeguards and standardization. The current proliferation of schemes and metrics remains a major obstacle, particularly for institutional investors seeking transparent, scalable and reliable frameworks for long-term investment. One key lever here is to align local tools (measurement, monitoring, and reporting based on systems such as the BioDiMoBot monitoring robot) with supranational and global funding models, which, however, requires standardisation and appropriately established policy frameworks.

• Another recurring message was the need to move beyond purely internal economic indicators and to better integrate environmental and social value into business decision-making and accounting (“put nature on the balance sheet”). While this concept is well established (see, e.g., Mismeasuring Our Lives, 2010, by the Nobel prize winners J. Stiglitz and A. Sen), discussions during EU Green Week showed that significant work is still needed to translate this ambition into practical and widely applicable frameworks.

• The event also underlined the continuing imbalance between nature-negative and nature-positive financial subsidies/flows as reported by the World Economic Forum and the UN Environmental Program early this year: globally, for every 1 USD/EURO invested in protecting or restoring nature, around 30 USD/EURO still go to activities that directly degrade it. This 30:1 ratio was described by one panel participant as a clear market failure. Redirecting even a fraction of these harmful subsidies towards nature protection and restoration could unlock substantial resources, but achieving such a shift will require strong, sustained and coherent policy action.

Overall, the EU Green Week 2026 provided a valuable platform for showcasing promising approaches to nature-positive investment and financing. For BioDiMoBot, participation offered an important opportunity to present its monitoring concept and system, connect with new stakeholders and position the project within the wider European discussion on biodiversity, innovation and investment.

BioDiMoBot looks forward to continuing the conversation at EU Green Week 2027.