Stockholm (NordSIP) – At a time of increased scrutiny over the role of engagement for sustainainable investors, Nature Action 100, a global investor engagement initiative to address the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, has published a new field guide for investors on nature engagements with companies: Exploring Nature Impacts and Dependencies: A Field Guide to Eight Key Sectors
The guide reviews how business activities impact and depend on nature across eight sectors, including biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, consumer goods retail, food, food and beverage retail, forestry and packaging, household and personal products, and metals and mining. According to Nature Action 100, these are sectors that investors in its network are prioritising for engagements “due to their importance for reversing nature and biodiversity loss by 2030.”
The report was developed by sustainability nonprofit Ceres, on behalf of Nature Action 100. Ceres co-leads the initiative’s global Secretariat and Corporate Engagement Working Group, alongside the IIGCC. The guide includes individual factsheets on each sector which explain the main industry activities associated with the sector and the nature-related impacts and dependencies stemming from those activities. It builds on Ceres Valuing Water Finance Initiative’s Global Assessment of Private Sector Impacts on Water, which describes the water-related impacts and dependencies for the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food, forestry and packaging, and metals and mining sectors.
“We created the new field guide to serve as a valuable resource for investors as they deepen their engagements with companies to manage the escalating risks of nature and create long-term value,” said Meryl Richards, program director, food and forests at Ceres. “As impacts and dependencies vary widely by sector, this guide lays out what those are for each sector and the meaningful actions that companies in those sectors can take to mitigate nature and biodiversity loss.”
Since direct engagement with Nature Action 100 companies kicked off last year, over 200 investor participants, representing over US$28.6 trillion in assets under management or advice, are engaging 100 market-leading companies to drive urgent and necessary actions on nature. The participating investors have called on companies to take timely and necessary steps to protect and restore nature and ecosystems in line with the Nature Action 100 Investor Expectations of Companies.
To further support investor engagements, Nature Action 100 will release an annual benchmark analysis of corporate progress against these investor expectations. Specific benchmark indicators will be announced ahead of that release later this spring.
