At this year’s Climate Week in New York, Pure Strategies and Ceres co-hosted a series of conversations with leaders from the financial, corporate, and non-profit sectors about the importance of greater corporate action to reverse nature and biodiversity loss.

Adam Kanzer, Head of Stewardship Americas, BNP Paribas Asset Management and Pure Strategies’ Vice President of Sustainability Consulting, Cheryl Baldwin discussed the increasing role of investors in engaging companies on the financial risks that nature loss presents. Mr. Kanzer highlighted the Nature Action 100 initiative as a leading example of how investors are working to assess nature-related risks within their portfolios and communicating their expectations of companies to credibly mitigate those risks for the benefit of both business and nature.

In the panel session that followed, Raphaelle Archambeaud with L’Occitane en Provence, Sandra Durrant with Target Corporation, Katina Boutis with Everlane, and Meryl Richards with Ceres expanded on those themes by sharing examples of how their organizations are taking action to assess and mitigate nature-related risks in corporate supply chains.

Rounding out the morning nature sessions, Pure Strategies’ Senior Sustainability Advisor Colleen Corrigan and I led a workshop on how to conduct a robust assessment of a company’s nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities.

Throughout the discussion a few consistent themes emerged that may prove useful for companies looking to start or accelerate their efforts on nature:

Ambitions are increasing, but actions are lagging

Due in part to the increased focus by investors on the systemic financial and business risks posed by nature and biodiversity loss, corporate ambition for nature is on the rise. As of October 2024, over two-thirds of companies on the Nature Action 100 list have made public commitments to protect nature, and nearly half have disclosed targets to mitigate their nature-related impacts. Our panelists notwithstanding, while public statements of ambition are increasing, many companies are still in the beginning stages of translating those ambitions into tangible actions. In characterizing the results of the first Nature Action 100 Company Benchmark measuring the progress of the initiative’s 100 companies, Mr. Kanzer indicated that most companies are still very much “at the starting gate.” A sobering, yet important realization as companies, investors, non-profits, and other stakeholders work to stop and reverse the rapid loss of nature and biodiversity.

A lack of action stems in part from uncertainty

We often hear from clients that they want to take action on nature but are unsure where to start. Nature is big, nature is complex, and it cannot be distilled down to a single carbon dioxide equivalent-like metric. However, the discussion highlighted the use of a nature footprint metric. L’Occitane en Provence, for example, uses the land footprint of their value chain as an overarching metric to guide their nature efforts. What this is and how to measure it is explained further in the Pure Strategies Planet-Forward Playbook.

Many companies also face challenges with supply chain traceability and locating where a company’s direct operations and supply chain interface with nature and sensitive ecosystems. Yet, the panelists noted a company can get started on nature efforts with little information about their supply chain and improve traceability over time.

A nature impact assessment can light a path forward

To close out the panel discussion, our speakers from L’Occitane en Provence, Target Corporation, Everlane, and Ceres were asked what one piece of advice they would give to their peers at other companies looking to take action on nature. All of them echoed a similar response, which was to invest the time and resources to conduct a robust assessment of the company’s nature impacts.

The process of locating their company’s interface with nature and determining the most material nature-related impacts across the value chain was a key to unlock on the path to action for each of our panelists. And, as Mr. Kanzer and the Nature Action 100 initiative highlight, the public disclosure of those assessments is critical in helping investors and other stakeholders determine if a company’s ambitions and actions are focused on the most material issues to nature.

In addition to those core themes, I was also encouraged to hear the topic of Indigenous rights raised by our speakers across all three sessions as a critically important part of corporate action on nature. Pure Strategies would like to thank Ceres again for co-hosting the discussion and we sincerely thank our panelists for their willingness to share their perspectives on this important topic with the audience.