To mark World Environment Day, WBCSD is publishing its NbS Blueprint and Nature-Based Solutions Map, which it developed in collaboration with over 50 global companies and external organizations over the past year. Together, these tools enable companies to identify and build the business case for nature-based solutions that address core business challenges while advancing action on climate, nature and equity.
Climate change, nature loss and widening inequality are deeply intertwined crises. To achieve the Paris climate goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we must harness nature and tackle biodiversity loss. This requires equity-building partnerships with global communities.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) offer a way to positively impact all three global challenges simultaneously. Yet despite a strong societal case for addressing NbS, private sector progress has been slow: USD 5 trillion in corporate funds negatively impact nature each year, while only USD 35 billion in annual investment is directed towards NbS.
Recognising NbS as a solution to business challenges is key to increasing private sector investment.
Well-designed NbS can provide strategic value beyond sustainability initiatives. We address business challenges and opportunities while also actively contributing to climate, nature and equity goals.
Members of the WBCSD's NbS workstream have been working for the past year to consider how to best achieve this outcome. Identify and clearly articulate the business case Aiming for nature-based solutions. The result was the NbS Blueprint, which provides companies with a six-step process for building a business case for nature-based solutions across sectors and biomes.Blueprints empower users to perform apples-to-apples comparisons with existing or standard solutions to make informed decisions and select options that maximize value across the enterprise.
Alongside the Blueprint, WBCSD is also launching version 0 of its Nature-Based Solutions Map, a tool that categorizes NbS according to business challenges and opportunities.This will enable companies to quickly zero in on the NbS types most relevant to their local context.
The NbS Blueprint and Map draw heavily on insights and experiences gained from the NbS business cases and implementations of eight member companies. Importantly, the tools also present key insights, processes, resources, guidance and support from other organizations committed to accelerating business action on NbS.
Nature-based solutions will play a key role in achieving Vision 2050, a world where more than nine billion people live comfortably within planetary limits by mid-century. Both business and societal challengesand articulating a strong business case for NbS investment is a key step towards mainstreaming NbS as a tool to achieve large-scale commercial and sustainability successes.
To support the work of NBS or learn more, please contact nature@wbcsd.org
