IUCN – International – How can business contribute to a sustainable world?

By Gerard Bos, Director of IUCN’s Business and Biodiversity Programme, writing from the Sustainable Brands conference underway in San Diego. Photo: Maria Ana Borges

Transformative change does not come about by one or two actors making a giant shift, but by many actors making smaller and purposeful changes, together raising the bar again and again.

The Sustainable Brands 2015 Conference is an opportunity to engage with hundreds of companies embarking on this journey – one that will potentially benefit their bottom line, as well as the environment. The annual gathering provides a platform for companies to share their latest achievements and challenge their peers to scale-up their conservation action.

IUCN is privileged to be part of this year’s event. As I highlight in my plenary speech, brands can help protect biodiversity and ecosystems – ‘natural assets’ such as forests or rivers – which businesses depend on to operate.

Faced with a shifting landscape that includes a growing scarcity of raw materials and increased disruption from climate change, companies understand the need to manage these natural assets. They also see the benefits of doing so – from achieving greater efficiencies and brand differentiation to securing new markets and their license to operate.

IUCN recognises that the private sector has a crucial role to play in delivering transformative change in society. Whether IUCN is working directly with companies and industry associations or through its government and NGO members, it is demonstrating that the private sector collectively can contribute to the change needed in building a more sustainable society – in several ways.

One concrete action for business is to support frontline conservation by funding science-backed efforts to save threatened wildlife, habitats and communities through initiatives such as IUCN’s SOS – Save Our Species which operates worldwide.

At the corporate level, transformative change can occur when a company re-examines its purpose and adopts sustainable policies and practices to match its long-term vision. Surprisingly, some industries with the largest footprints, such as mining, have taken this first step. A biodiversity performance review of the International Council of Mining and Metals last year found that 20 member companies had made progress on adopting corporate-wide policies and strategy commitments, but noted that further action was required.

For transformative change to happen at the operational level, businesses must look beyond their fences to the broader landscape, where genuine multi-stakeholder engagement creates joint solutions for shared resources and risks, and helps build resilient natural systems that provide the necessary goods and services.

For instance, Nespresso is working with local businesses, coffee farmers, government and NGO representatives in the Cerrado region of Brazil to build a collaborative platform that will address some of the area’s most pressing threats, like water scarcity.

Nationally, and internationally, the private sector can also influence policies and spending that are essential to achieve a more sustainable society. Through its lending power, the finance community, for example, can ensure that its funding promotes a rational use of resources and upholds the latest environmental standards.

For companies to truly gain a clearer picture on the benefits and risks related to ecosystems and biodiversity, however, they must be able to value and measure their impact and dependency on natural capital. Under the Natural Capital Coalition, IUCN and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, an IUCN member, are leading teams to develop and test a Natural Capital Protocol that will help guide the private sector on this front.

Again, it is the power of this collective action by business, along with government regulators and civil society, which is helping to raise the bar and ensure that nature can thrive.

Source : IUCN International – How can business contribute to a sustainable world?