The goods and services provided by ecosystems are essential foundations to human societies and their economies, yet biodiversity is not explicitly valued in most business decisions. Biodiversity offsetting is rapidly emerging as an approach to facilitate development while protecting conservation values. Critics of biodiversity offsetting worry that it is ‘selling out’ by creating a mechanism for developers to bypass normal environmental impact assessment and mitigation processes, and simply buy the right to destroy or pollute nature. While offsetting needs to be carefully implemented and managed in accord with the mitigation heirarchy, it does have the potential to transform conservation. It provides a mechanism for business interests to formally integrate biodiversity values into project planning and implementation, and delivers a structure for companies to exercise their social and environmental responsibility in a transparent and consistent manner. Importantly, it also internalizes the costs of biodiversity protection into business models, allowing conservation to be funded through private sector investments. The growing pressures of climate change are leading society to acknowledge that we cant afford to lose any more biodiversity, but also that there is increasing need for sustainable development opportunities. In principle, biodiversity offsetting represents an innovative system for economic development that causes no net loss, and even a net gain, in biodiversity. Practical experience to date is promising, but there remain challenges, especially in marine systems. Recent experiences in Belize and the Great Barrier Reef provide insights to guide further development of this novel approach for adapting conservation in a changing climate.