A USER-FRIENDLY TOOL FOR OCEAN-FRIENDLY BUSINESS

The ocean is our planet’s respiratory system, capturing up to 30 % of anthropogenic CO2   and emitting, through phytoplankton, 50% of the oxygen we breathe. It is critical to feeding the people on our planet, as 10–12% of the world’s population depends on seafood for its protein intake.

The ocean is also vital to our economies. Landscapes within 100 km of coastlines account for 61% of global GDP. Ninety-eight percent of international communications are conveyed by submarine cables, and 90% of transported goods travel by sea. Eighty percent of tourist activity is made possible by the ocean. And a 2015 study by BCG, the Global Change Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature reported that the goods and services flowing from the world’s coastal and marine ecosystems would put the maritime GDP at US $2.5 trillion—making the ocean the seventh-largest economy in the world!

We should therefore be alarmed that the world’s oceans are deteriorating rapidly, due to a confluence of factors: global warming, acidification, pollution, overfishing, and insufficient protection of key ecosystems. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14) appropriately calls for countries and businesses to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources” of the world.

Business has a critical role to play—through both investment and the shifting of economic activity toward SDG-friendly practices—in enabling the world to deliver on all 17 SDGs by 2030. BCG analysis of available data shows that half of all companies globally have already prioritized SDGs in their strategies and operating models. Yet companies still struggle to understand how to measure their impact on the oceans so that they can take steps to mitigate it, with only 23% having publicized operational indicators relevant to their prioritized SDGs.

Moreover, of all 17 SDGs, SDG14 is the least prioritized by companies globally. Only 14% have prioritized SDG14 compared with, for example, 79% for SDG8 (“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”) and 76% for SDG13 (“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”).

In 2017, BCG, France’s Fondation de la Mer, and the French government’s Ministry of Ecological and Societal Transition began to collaborate on an effort to help businesses take action. We found that, although the economic value of ocean-related industries in France is equal to about 14 % of French GDP, SDG14 is the least prioritized of all the SDGs by French companies. We convened a large group of business leaders and consulted key scientific, NGO, and institutional stakeholders to begin developing a tool that companies could use to measure their impact on the ocean, set objectives for mitigating it, and report on their progress.

What we have created is the first global reporting dashboard to aid companies worldwide in their efforts to advance the UN’s SDG14. The Ocean Dashboard is a user-friendly tool organized around three broad areas of corporate activity or interaction with the ocean environment. Within each of these areas of activity, the dashboard identifies both general types of impact on the ocean and specific impacts or areas for mitigation; for each specific impact or area for mitigation, in turn, it provides companies with both levers and indicators for measuring the effects of the levers.  The following table illustrates this basic framework:

For "Physical pollution of aquatic and marine environments" (“Types of impact”) under "Waste" and "Plastic,” respectively, the dashboard lists these levers and indicators:

It is important to note that not all ten types of impact on the dashboard apply to all sectors or companies. That said, the 44 levers and their associated indicators enable companies to make a comprehensive assessment of their impact on the ocean, identify concrete actions they can take to mitigate or improve that impact, and measure the results of their actions.

For each indicator we have also proposed normative values against which companies can measure their activities, as well as target visions: For example, for "Physical pollution of aquatic and marine environments" the target vision is "An economy in which all waste is recovered and no waste is dumped into the ocean." The dashboard also captures interdependencies between SDG14 targets and those for other SDGs.

Already available in open access to all French companies, the Ocean Dashboard is being made accessible internationally in 2020 (and is currently available in English). Access to the dashboard is free. BCG and its partners will be organizing webinars in order to present this tool to potential users and teach them about its use. BCG and la Fondation de la Mer are also developing a digital platform to help companies assess their performance in confidence.