The Sustainability Imperative

Businesses control substantial resources and knowledge that can, and must, be harnessed for biodiversity action. Business’s response to biodiversity decline has the power to accelerate activities across our societies or, through inaction, hamper societal responses. This Advisor suggests that new phrases are needed to catalyze this biodiversity action. The term “nature-based stakeholder engagement” is discussed in this article as a potential candidate, as it connects two powerful notions.

Business won’t function if nature continues to decline. Resources like water, soil, food, fiber, and minerals, and ecosystem services like crop pollination, water filtration, and climate regulation all contribute to business success and human livelihoods. Take these away, and companies will cease to function effectively. The opposite is also true. When harnessed responsibly, natural abundance and regenerative natural systems translate into productive growth, both for companies and the communities they serve. Business and finance, therefore, have a critical role to play in protecting and restoring nature.

This two-part Advisor series examines new developments in methane reduction. Here in Part I, we look at efforts to reduce methane emissions in agriculture, the largest industry contributor (from human-related activities) to methane in the atmosphere.

The case study presented in this Advisor demonstrates the scientific approach to solutions for business biodiversity challenges and highlights how the resulting evidence can be channeled into nature positive management actions.

Rafael Sardá examines the potential of offshore wind farms and the challenges of balancing climate change mitigation with biodiversity protection goals. Significant advances in technology and expanded government support have led to increased development of offshore wind farms. But Sardá cautions that large-scale renewable energy projects should be planned and implemented with biodiversity considerations embedded, so that one environmental goal is not sacrificed for another. He proposes a way to balance protecting marine areas with promoting nature positive strategies.

Paul Dewick and Joseph Sarkis emphasize the important role the circular economy has in protecting biodiversity. They begin by presenting business strategies for circularity and extending these to consider biodiversity. CE business models draw attention to the importance of reducing waste and pollution, reusing and recycling materials, and regenerating natural systems. The models focus on the strategies of narrowing, slowing, closing, and regenerating/restoring and show how circularity can advance biodiversity protection. Dewick and Sarkis provide practice-oriented guidelines for implementing circular strategies and discuss how enabling factors like IT support, stakeholder engagement, and measurement are important for facilitating circular strategies that protect biodiversity.

Simon Pek and Nicholas Poggioli look at how businesses can learn about biodiversity issues and incorporate them into effective strategies through mini-publics. Mini-publics gather a wide range of stakeholders to deliberate and provide recommendations on addressing an issue. Pek and Poggioli describe how mini-publics can be initiated, their key components, and the benefits they offer for business strategy formulation and implementation. They also look at how businesses can implement mini-publics in a responsible manner and ensure a deliberative democratic process.

Anna Heikkinen, Ari Jokinen, and Johanna Kujala explore how nature positive language provides a useful instrument to drive business action on biodiversity issues. They examine how language is critical for developing nature-based stakeholder engagement and illustrate how it can motivate companies to take actions on biodiversity. The authors conclude with descriptions of the benefits nature-based stakeholder engagement can have for businesses, local communities, and the environment.