Businesses still taking nature for granted

Major companies including food businesses are failing to assess and measure their impact on nature, according to new analysis.

The World Benchmarking Alliance’s (WBA) updated nature benchmark report assessed how more than 800 major companies across sectors including household products, apparel, mining and food are impacting nature and protecting and restoring ecosystems.

It found that although some companies are helping to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, the majority do not yet fully understand how they impact and depend on nature with only 5% of all companies having carried out an assessment of the impact of their operations on nature and less than 1% having assessed their dependencies on it.

The benchmark report also assessed company policies and actions across plastics, water stewardship, environmental rights and board-level accountability. It found that just 7% of companies have quantitative, time-bound targets to reduce plastic use and waste, although 43% of companies provide qualitative evidence of plastic reduction, such as one-off programmes or initiatives to reduce the plastic in a specific product.

While just under a third (29%) of companies report water use reductions or disclose water usage from water-stressed areas, only 15% are reporting metrics on discharged pollutants and just 4% have set targets to reduce them.

Just 13% of companies assessed express a clear commitment to respect indigenous peoples’ rights, while only 2% of companies demonstrate that their boards have the relevant expertise on topics like biodiversity or climate, despite 66% of companies assigning sustainability oversight to their boards. 

Among food businesses, Nestlé, Unilever and Danone each ranked among the top performing band of companies with a score of more than 40 points, while Subway and Bidcorp were among the bottom band of companies scoring less than 10.

“The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), a landmark agreement at COP15, recognises the private sector has a role to play if we hope to preserve life on earth. But our research shows that the vast majority of large companies continue to take nature for granted, despite the fact a healthy planet underpins a healthy economy,” said Jenni Black, nature transformation lead at the WBA.

Black added that two years after the GBF was agreed “it’s imperative for companies to understand and act on their impacts on nature”.