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Nature

Read time: 4 mins 30 secs     Added: 19/10/2023

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With soaring business costs, ongoing supply chain disruptions, labour market shortages and the uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic environment, it can be difficult to adapt your business to accommodate the impacts of climate change and the need to improve sustainability more broadly. 

However, by starting to think about nature now, you could better manage risks and take advantage of new opportunities by getting ahead of the curve on an issue that continues to gain greater prominence across all stakeholders and sectors.

What is nature?

The natural world, with an emphasis on the diversity of living organisms (including people) and their interactions among themselves and with their environment. Nature can be understood through a construct of four realms: ocean, land, freshwater and atmosphere.

What is biodiversity?

The variety among living organisms both across different species and within the same species; and includes how these different species interact with each other.  It can often be used as a health indicator of nature. Nature isn’t enough on its own – we need a diversified natural world to provide resilience and stable habitats.

Why should businesses care about nature?

As individuals and companies, we derive a wide range of ecosystem services from nature, such as food, fibres used to make textiles, plant materials used for fuel, building materials and medicines. There are also less obvious ecosystem services, such as the pollination of crops by bees, the natural flood defences provided by peatland, and the capturing and storing of carbon to mitigate against climate change,  through habitats like seagrasses and woodlands. 

Jonas Persson, Head of Sustainability and ESG Finance says “These ecosystem services don’t come with an invoice so they are often not part of business decision making, yet a lot of the capital that powers businesses and the global economy ultimately comes from the natural world. Integrating nature in both business models and strategies, can lead to better-informed decisions that can benefit both businesses and the planet.”

 

Nature: a business imperative

In this short video, we see specialists in biodiversity share why organisations need to prioritise nature in their strategies and their advice on how to get started.

Watch the key takeaways

How to start thinking about the implications to your business:

  1. How does my business impact and depend on nature and at which locations do we interface with areas of high biodiversity importance? 
  2. What are the potential risks of these dependencies and impacts in the short, medium and long term?
  3. What is the business case for managing them?
  4. What frameworks exist for identifying and measuring nature-related risks and opportunities to inform financial and business decision-making?
  5. What cultural change is required to embed nature in my organisation and drive change?

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