The Sustainability Imperative

Cynthia E. Clark focuses on strategies for navigating the climate-related information-disclosure landscape. Clark describes the current status of disclosure regulations in the US and Europe, as well as actions being taken by various stock exchanges. She then delves into strategies for boards of directors, including avoiding greenwashing, staying up to speed on potential regulatory changes, reporting on the risks of transitioning to net zero, and having a dedicated team accountable for ESG reporting to ensure information accuracy.

Alex Saric looks at applying circular economy principles to supply chain emissions. Sustainability goals consistently rank as a top corporate priority, and Scope 3 sources (greenhouse gases produced by external suppliers and customer activities) make up at least 70% of overall emissions for most industries. Saric says companies should leverage data provided by suppliers and third-party data sources to create a verification framework and, with that in hand, look for circular economy methods to reduce emissions.

Food systems are highly interlinked, from production to distribution to consumption, and there are significant social, cultural, economic, environmental, and political factors that interact with those processes. Understanding how vertical agriculture fits within these larger food systems is critical to advancing more sustainable food production. This Advisor presents three guiding principles for how vertical agriculture businesses can contribute to biodiversity conservation.

This Advisor 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 large-scale renewable energy projects should be planned and implemented with biodiversity considerations embedded, so that one environmental goal is not sacrificed for another.

Concerns have been raised about wider environmental and social sustainability factors being neglected in circular economy (CE)-related thinking. As we explore in this Advisor, one of these crucial blind spots relates to biodiversity.

In Part II of this Advisor series on reducing methane, we examine several developments designed to help reduce methane emissions originating from waste in landfills.

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.