Imagine going to your favorite business news source and finding an article like this:
- One of the world's largest technology companies has declared its goal to become “nature positive.”
- The head of the world's second most populous country called for global cooperation to conserve biodiversity.
- A global agreement has been signed to protect the biodiversity of the world's oceans.
- Companies that rely on nature employ traceability officers to verify and substantiate their sustainability claims.
- The launch of a global framework for companies to report their impacts on biodiversity is nearing.
After seeing these headlines, you would think that the world is finally appreciating and addressing the role that nature and biodiversity play in the global economy and human health and well-being, right?
Well, all of these articles have appeared in the last few weeks.
- Salesforce introduced a Nature Positive strategy focused on reducing our impact on nature, leading nature restoration at scale, and helping Salesforce customers become “nature positive” too.
- “When nature is safe, our future is safe,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, calling for an international alliance to protect biodiversity.
- Last month, nearly 200 countries reached a historic agreement to protect the world's oceans, placing 30 percent of the ocean in protected areas by 2030 to protect and restore marine ecosystems.
- A new paper in Planet Tracker notes that traceability leaders within companies are increasingly leveraging sustainability, information technology, product development, procurement, legal, logistics, and marketing functions.
- The Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has published the final draft of a proposed framework detailing how companies should report on evolving nature-related risks, ahead of final publication in September.
Welcome to the world where business and biodiversity intersect. There, nature becomes truly profitable. Although still in its infancy, there is a rapidly growing wave of interest and activity in how corporations contribute to species decline and habitat degradation and destruction, and in growing efforts to remediate this. It's increasing.
Welcome to the world where business and biodiversity intersect.
Much of this is driven by the growing understanding that businesses need nature to grow and thrive. As a result, some leading companies are setting goals not just to reduce harm, but to ultimately become “nature positive.” While the term is admittedly vague and aspirational, it is nonetheless making its way into corporate communications.
All of these are topics that have blossomed at GreenBiz, and we have just announced our latest annual event, Bloom, focused on business and biodiversity. The first event will be held October 24-25 in San Jose, California (coinciding with, but separate from, the VERGE 23 conference).
“The accelerating loss of biodiversity and ecosystems is as serious as the climate crisis, yet it is not getting the attention it deserves from business leaders and policy makers,” said the organizer of Bloom, a food and beverage expert at GreenBiz. My friend and colleague Teresa Reeve, who leads Natural Strategy, explained: “Through this event, we hope to raise awareness of this problem and enable experts to work together to develop solutions.”
Mr. Reeve's Bloom 23 agenda is still in development, but is likely to cover a variety of hot-button issues, including:
- How companies can assess, manage and communicate their impact on the natural world.
- Market and financial mechanisms that can encourage practices that care for nature.
- How do investors view biodiversity impacts as a portfolio risk?
- How companies engage with suppliers, local communities, indigenous peoples and other key stakeholders to promote biodiversity and a just world.
- New policies and regulations affecting corporate activities towards nature and how companies can contribute to the policy process.
- Resources and innovations that businesses can leverage to protect and restore nature.
These are among the challenges and opportunities that businesses and investors will face in the coming months and years, as the topic of business and biodiversity gains increasing attention. These are also themes that a growing number of proactive companies are already starting to address.
This is certainly an emerging field, similar to the field of corporate carbon measurement and reduction about a decade ago. In the years since, thousands of companies have pivoted to carbon management, either voluntarily or based on pressure from investors, customers, and policymakers. Measuring and mitigating carbon emissions and setting net-zero targets is still an emerging field, but early adopters are generally further ahead. “Scope 3” has gone from being a geeky carbon term to a term of art.
I suspect we will see a similar trajectory when it comes to natural capital management and biodiversity risk mitigation. And companies that already manage their carbon footprint are likely to have an advantage in addressing biodiversity based on similar internal policies and processes. Create a plan to deal with it. Engagement with suppliers and other stakeholders. Form partnerships and communicate progress. For example, his aforementioned TNFD focuses on the same four pillars as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): strategy; crisis management; and metrics and goals. Companies that already have experience with TCFD reporting should find it easier to comply with the nature-related version.
Of course, it's not just about reporting or mitigating negative effects on yourself. There are big business opportunities here. A report published last year said technologies such as satellite rainforest monitoring, tree-planting drones and carbon credit trading software are “fast-growing market opportunities” for nature-based solutions. Another study says nature-based markets, including agriculture, voluntary carbon credits, conservation projects, and nature-based solutions for carbon sequestration, could already be worth more than $7 trillion a year.
All this is helping to increase the number of jobs in companies focused on nature conservation and restoration, including traceability officers.
In fact, there are few industries that are not affected by biodiversity issues. Food and agriculture are clearly at the top of the list of affected sectors, but so are other sectors, from oil, gas and chemicals to retail and tourism. Nature seems to be an important asset for many companies, even if they don't realize it yet.
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