GSK, one of the world’s largest biopharma businesses, and Kering, a company representing some of the biggest brands in luxury goods, are among the first five companies whose nature strategies have been reviewed and accepted as part of ‘It’s Now for Nature’.
These nature strategies are published on the campaign website on the International Day for Biological Diversity, sending a strong signal of the growing momentum on nature and encouraging more businesses to step up their actions to halt and reverse nature loss.
Accompanying GSK and Kering in this first group of companies, are French utility company ENGIE, the Taiwan Cement Corporation and UK sustainable hairdressing chain Anne Veck Limited, the only SME to be part of this first group.
“This is an exciting milestone which we hope will lead to a snowball effect, says Eva Zabey, CEO at Business for Nature, the global coalition behind the campaign. All these companies have clearly articulated how they will address their most material impacts and dependencies on nature. We hope these strategies give confidence to others to start their own journey to develop and publish a nature strategy.”
She went on to add: “The more that companies can share and learn from each other, the quicker other companies can develop their own strategies and avoid having to start from scratch.”
Although momentum on nature is growing with global initiatives such as the TNFD and SBTN picking up pace across the corporate world, more must be done to make the crucial shift from adoption to implementation of the Biodiversity Plan (also known as the Global Biodiversity Framework). By developing a strategy for nature that considers multiple impacts and dependencies across freshwater, land, air, ocean and biodiversity, businesses can reduce their negative impacts and boost business resilience. The plans can also bring new commercial opportunities, create long-term value and strengthen climate and sustainability goals.
For a nature strategy to be featured as part of the global campaign, it should include:
- A materiality assessment to identify material impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities.
- SMART targets aligned with material impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities.
- Actions to achieve SMART targets and in particular to avoid and reduce negative impacts on nature; based on material impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities.
- C-suite or board approval of the strategy and responsibility for its delivery.
Géraldine Vallejo, Sustainability Programme Director at Kering, says: “At Kering, we are proud that our nature strategy is among the first featured as part of ‘It’s Now for Nature’, and we hope this will contribute to the growing momentum of corporate nature action encouraging more companies to develop and publish an ambitious strategy for a nature-positive future.”
For GSK, creating a strategy for nature made perfect business sense, explains Adele Cheli, Sustainability Partnerships and Strategy Director: “As a healthcare company, we know that nature and health are deeply connected. Our business relies on nature, and we use many natural materials to manufacture our products, so there is a very important business resilience angle for us to consider.”
Nature strategies submitted to ‘It’s Now for Nature’ are reviewed on an ongoing basis with more strategies expected to be featured on the website in the run-up to the UN Biodiversity COP16 in late October, and Zabey hopes that the publication of the first five will inspire more companies to get on board.
“The planetary crisis requires us to act with urgency, and we don’t have time to hatch the perfect plan,” Zabey explains. “However, many companies will already have enough knowledge to take some “no regrets” actions, and having an imperfect strategy is much better than having none at all.”
Cheli agrees, advising companies not to focus on creating the perfect plan. “Just get going,” she says. “Wherever you are on your data journey, progress is better than perfection – let’s get moving.”
Explore the nature strategies featured as part of ‘It’s Now for Nature’