Businesses need ambitious, evidence-based strategies to align with Nature Positive goals
The private sector is facing increasing pressure to align with global goals to halt and reverse the loss of nature – to move beyond just mitigating any damages caused by their operations and supply chains, towards contributing positively to nature recovery on a societal scale (i.e., ‘Nature Positive’). Transformative change is needed to realise this.
From taking private actions to reduce waste and source sustainable materials to participating in collaborative initiatives, many businesses are already starting to take action to address the biodiversity crisis. However, to deliver global goals for nature – such as the vision and mission of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – the scale of action must be in line with businesses’ negative impacts and societal needs.
“To halt and reverse biodiversity loss to put nature on a path to recovery for the benefit of people and planet” – Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) mission
While there are many types of seemingly simple or obvious actions that companies can take for nature (e.g., improving circularity, regenerative agriculture, tree planting), claims of measurable contributions are hindered by uncertainties. These manifest in multiple ways, including measuring negative impacts in complex value chains and measuring positive outcomes associated with mitigation actions. Uncertainties are further exacerbated by leakage – where one organisation’s direct and tangible actions do not lead to overall improvements in the state of nature because of a lack of change at jurisdictional, value-chain, market, or systems scales. These issues create risks of greenwashing; ineffective, insufficient, or inequitable action; and unintended environmental or social consequences.
In two recent papers from the Oxford Nature Positive Hub, Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, and The Biodiversity Consultancy, researchers find ways to address these challenges.
Actions for businesses
In a business-focused paper, researchers outline the need for companies to not only implement private actions at the scale of their individual organisations, but to also participate in social-signaling and collective actions to drive systems change. These types of actions – which require extended accountability beyond the direct sphere of control of any one company – are essential for driving transformative change towards nature recovery on a societal scale. While driving transformative change may sound challenging for any one company, it can be broken down into tangible targets and actions towards an outcome-based goal for nature, structured around three themes:
- Reducing new and ongoing negative impacts to halt declines in nature.
- Taking positive actions to contribute to nature recovery – which at least counterbalance unavoidable ongoing impacts and begin to address historic negative impacts.
- Participating in collective action (e.g., across value chains and landscapes) to tackle structural issues, drive systems change, and promote full recovery on a societal scale.
Dr Hollie Booth said: “After working closely with many multi-national corporations over the last few years I understand that the nature agenda feels a bit scary. Everyone is just getting their head around climate goals and now nature-related disclosures and Nature Positive commitments are here, and they seem even bigger and more complicated. However, taking an integrated and outcome-oriented approach to nature can help businesses to synergistically address climate and biodiversity risks, generate the data and information needed to align with voluntary and regulatory disclosure frameworks (e.g., CSRD), and build long-term supply chain resilience.”
Actions for researchers
In a research-focused paper, they have outlined an ambitious research agenda to help support businesses to create change and ensure strategies are effective and aligned with global biodiversity goals.
Dr Talitha Bromwich said: “Achieving meaningful Nature Positive change is going to require significant transformation to the way our businesses and societies operate. This necessitates a coordinated, research-driven approach to make sure Nature Positive strategies avoid unintended environmental and social impacts and can offer a feasible, effective, and equitable path to halting and reversing global biodiversity loss.”
The key areas of research priority they have identified are:
- The strategic options for businesses in prioritising actions
- What Nature Positive business plans look like in practice
- The best levers to motivate more private sector action
- How to monitor and check Nature Positive strategies are working
More collaboration is needed between academics, consultants, and sustainability experts to fund and design research projects that attempt to answer these priority research questions.
Dr Tom White said: “There is increasing expectation on businesses to address their impacts and contribute towards global goals of nature recovery. But there are lots of unanswered questions and data gaps around the specific levers that can be pulled, and actions put in place that can deliver effective outcomes for biodiversity. Given the urgency with which change is needed, and the risks of getting it wrong, we believe targeted collaborative research to address these questions is key. Consultancies can play a key role here – being a bridge between academia and the business community who can help translate science into practice.”
Bringing business and research together
The next steps are to start developing these research projects and engaging in collaborative research efforts on the interface of business and biodiversity. One example is the Nature Positive Initiative, a group of organisations committed to preserving the integrity of Nature Positive as a measurable 2030 global goal for nature – providing the tools, guidance, and metrics necessary to allow all to contribute.
Dr Hollie Booth concluded: “Our aim is to show that actions toward transformative change are definable, feasible, and measurable – and that they’re not only optional extras but a core and necessary part of Nature Positive commitments. Businesses have already played leading roles in driving other societal goals, such as ending modern slavery or ensuring a living wage, which shows that progressive companies can and do embrace extended accountability and collective action. It’s time to do the same for nature.”
To read more about these papers, published in One Earth, visit: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.06.003 and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.07.003
