Nature Can’t Wait for COP: Embrace Nature-Positive Business Strategy as an Opportunity and a Lever of Progress.

The recent COP16 summit offered a sobering reminder of how urgently we need to address the biodiversity crisis. Despite hopes for substantial progress, the summit ultimately fell short in its goal to mobilize sufficient funding and decisive action for implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). With the accelerating degradation of ecosystems and alarming rates of species extinction, COP16’s underwhelming results signal not only dire consequences for the planet but also growing commercial risks for businesses worldwide.

These challenges underscore the need to adopt nature-positive strategies and recognise that climate and biodiversity are fundamentally interlinked. As we look to COP29, the link between climate action and biodiversity conservation will only strengthen, reinforcing the need for businesses to adopt a holistic, nature-positive approach. As the World Economic Forum aptly stated, “The future is net zero and nature positive; it cannot be one without being the other.”

For companies, this should serve as a wake-up call. As natural resources become scarcer, businesses are beginning to experience firsthand the operational and financial impacts of ecosystem decline.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom.

This also presents an opportunity to incorporate nature into business strategy. Those that recognise interdependencies and prioritise both nature and climate are better positioned to navigate the shifting regulatory landscape and capitalise on emerging opportunities.

The Business Case for Nature:

1. Regulation and Compliance: Incorporating nature into strategy allows businesses to stay ahead of emerging regulations* like the CSRD, EUDR, BNG and CSDDD, which will require businesses to consider their nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities. Preparing early for compliance will reduce legal and reputational risks and help to ready the business and relevant functions for nature-related disclosure.
2. Business Resilience: As ecosystems degrade, resources such as water and raw materials can become increasingly scarce and costly, with implications on supply chains. Prioritizing biodiversity strengthens business resilience by helping to mitigate risks related to resource scarcity and operational disruptions. Unilever, for example, has addressed this through ecosystem restoration around its palm oil operations, which has helped to stabilise supply chains.
3. Opportunities for Growth: Aiming for a nature-positive approach can not only open opportunities in green finance but help to build and strengthen reputation and stakeholder trust. By following the mitigation hierarchy—avoiding, minimizing, restoring, and offsetting environmental impacts—companies demonstrate responsible practices that attract conscious consumers and investors. The World Economic Forum projects that shifting to nature-positive models could unlock $10 trillion in opportunities by 2050, positioning businesses for sustainable growth and competitiveness.

So, how can businesses incorporate nature into their strategic thinking to mitigate risk and leverage opportunity? Here’s 6 key considerations to help you get started:

1. Identify Nature Impacts, Risks, Dependencies, and Opportunities: Start by identifying nature-related impacts, risks, dependencies, and opportunities along the value chain. Whilst there are various tools that can help you get started (see i.e. WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter, TNFD’s LEAP approach), leveraging CSRD’s double materiality approach can help to not only initially identify impacts, risks, dependencies, and opportunities, but pinpoint their location along your value chain and clarify where and how nature-related risks and business goals intersect, pinpointing areas for maximum impact.
2. Engage stakeholders to ensure diverse perspectives (internally and externally): Engaging relevant functions within the business is essential if any future action on nature is to be purposefully championed throughout the organisation. Externally, incorporating diverse perspectives through two-way dialogue with environmental organisations and local communities makes for more effective, grounded and better implemented strategies (all whilst building stakeholder trust).
3. Set SMART and Science-Based Targets: Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) targets are table stakes for businesses looking to take meaningful action on biodiversity. For those ready to go further, adopting Science-Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) provides a gold-standard framework, as demonstrated by Kering, GSK, and Holcim. SBTN aligns corporate strategies with global biodiversity goals, ensuring measurable impact, accountability, and transparency.
4. Integrate Biodiversity into Transition and Sustainability Strategies to Leverage Interconnections: To drive maximum impact, biodiversity targets should be integrated into climate transition plans. Instead of considering these as separate actions, leverage their interconnections - healthy ecosystems play a key role in carbon sequestration and climate resilience, which can directly support climate goals. Additionally, initiatives like ecosystem restoration will help to protect supply chains, mitigate climate disruptions, and strengthen overall sustainability strategies. Therefore, by taking this integrated approach, efforts on biodiversity will not only drive businesses closer to achieving climate targets but also build long-term resilience, manage risks, and position themselves for growth in a nature-positive economy.
5. Report on Nature Impacts and Progress: Utilising frameworks like the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) supports companies to navigate the complexities of biodiversity and drive accountability for managing nature-related risks and opportunities successfully. The TNFD framework aims to standardise and improve reporting on the impacts and implications of business activities on nature. These disclosures assist in enhancing transparency and enabling future decision making that aligns with sustainability goals.
6. Communicate Authentically: A credible approach to driving progress on nature will empower businesses to authentically communicate, galvanise change and drive engagement. And this is important. There is a fine line between ‘greenwashing’ (minimal action with inflated communication) and ‘greywashing’ (abundant action with minimal / muted communication). Transparent communication of credible action allows businesses to share progress on Nature with stakeholders, build reputation and demonstrate commitment, free of risk. In doing so, companies can foster trust and differentiate themselves in competitive markets.

If you would like to discuss anything in this article, or get started on incorporating nature into your strategic thinking today, please contact us at?[email protected]

*Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive?(CSRD), European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)