World Wildlife Day 2022 was a day not traditionally associated with businesses! However, on this day the chief executives of 10 of the world’s leading accountancy institutes joined together to support a new call to action in response to the nature crisis. Working together as part of the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA), the CEOs signed the call to action ‘Nature is Everyone’s Business’ to signal the important role the profession plays in this crisis.
Every business relies on nature. Healthy societies, resilient economies and thriving businesses depend on it.
But while protecting nature has been of increasing importance to policy makers concepts like ‘nature’, ‘biodiversity’ and ‘ecosystems’ have long been considered as something that exists firmly outside the office window.
Without being overtly aware of it, though, businesses are in an ecosystem on which they have an impact, and which impacts on them. And that ecosystem is under severe threat. Our natural world is facing one million species under the threat of extinction, with a consequent impact on the environment in which we live and work.
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, describes biodiversity as a fundamental component of long-term business survival. Businesses are dependent on nature and biodiversity for supplies of raw materials, fuel, availability of clean water, clean air, pollination, crops, climate regulation for a stable climate, and a healthy safe environment. They rely on it for the wellbeing of their staff, their consumers, in their own operations and along their supply chains.
Experts warn biodiversity loss poses as much of a threat to our planet as climate change, but businesses struggle to understand their connection with biodiversity and its relevance to their business. This leaves them potentially vulnerable to a range of risks.
In 2020, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as one of the top five risks for the coming 10 years in terms of likelihood and social and economic impact. The IPCC report published this week pointed to ‘non-climatic global trends’, like biodiversity loss, as being a crucial to threat to our continued survival.
Sectors like fisheries, forestry and agriculture and agri-food will be directly affected by nature loss – for example, rising temperatures causing the extinction of a species that pollinates plants, leading to global shortages of certain products, leading to rising prices, and hunger. But any business involving a direct interaction between people and nature is similarly threatened, the most obvious being the tourism industry and much of the hospitality sector. For these businesses, the nature loss is a significant business risk, but most businesses suffer indirectly from nature impairment.
So what can businesses do? A lot, it seems.
A report to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage prepared by Optimize, Irish Forum on Nature Capital and AECOM in 2020, found that business has a considerable role to play in protecting biodiversity. This sentiment is echoed by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) in its Biodiversity Handbook, which has resources for business biodiversity action for business. In Northern Ireland, Business in the Community has created a Business and Biodiversity Charter as a framework for businesses to engage with biodiversity. The Charter is based around a staged approach, and is applicable to all organisations from micro-businesses to large facilities owned by multi-national companies.
Some actions businesses can take are
Build awareness
Knowledge is power. Businesses can utilise resources such as those provided by Natural Capital Ireland (NCI), those in the BITCI’s Biodiversity Handbook, the resources provided by Business in the Community in Northern Ireland, or global sources such as Business for Nature.
Build biodiversity into your strategy.
For many businesses, this means focussing on what used to be called the ‘triple bottom line’ of people, planet and profit, where benefits to humanity, the environment and the financial bottom line are given equal prominence by a business.
Define what is material to you.
Business for Nature describes this as “Assess[ing] your impacts and dependencies on nature to ensure you are committing and acting on the most material ones”. You can create an impact by connecting with your local community, engaging in clean-up projects, or grow-your-own workshops, and provide leadership and opportunities for your team to promote action on nature protection.
Keep an eye on developments
In Ireland NCI is working to develop a national Business and Biodiversity Platform to support businesses to act to combat the biodiversity crisis. This an online hub will help the private sector recognise the risks posed by biodiversity loss and take measurable, practical actions to halt the growing crisis.
Greenwash at your peril
Many businesses are embracing biodiversity and environmental sustainability as a means of differentiating themselves competitively to attract customers, client staff and even access to access to finance. However, businesses must be transparent about their activities. Accountability is king, so if you pledge to do something, do and it disclose it, and ensure that it will have an impact.
Biodiversity is increasing in importance to business, and businesses will be expected to know about biodiversity action and to engage with it.
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