What does nature-positive mean for business?

The “building blocks” aim break down the key concepts of nature-positive action that appear in key publications and translate them into clear steps that help a non-expert business audience to readily and simply understand what makes an action nature positive. This work will serve as the foundation for a roadmap that help companies navigate actions, tools and other resources across different value chains, and raise the level of ambition and guide business to credibly contribute to nature-positive outcomes, helping businesses to better identify and understand the implications of the Global Goal for Nature for business: net positive by 2030 and full recovery by 2050. 

The intent of this work is not to add to the noise and confusion by creating something new – instead we are building on and translating existing messaging and guidance on nature-positive and interpret it for a business audience, to make it more understandable and communicable to business.

WBCSD practitioner’s guide: what does nature-positive mean for business? 

This guide expands on the building blocks infographic and offers a comprehensive version of the “building blocks” to guide credible business action to a nature-positive as well as a net-zero and equitable world. Using common steps from existing frameworks as a basis, these building blocks help business understand the implications of the Global Goal for Nature in raising the level of ambition and action to achieve a nature-positive world by 2030. 

Download the practitioner’s guide: what does nature-positive mean for business

The infographic summarizes the key messages for each building block: 

• Assess & prioritize: Assess & prioritize – Assess realms of nature (biodiversity, freshwater, land, oceans) potentially relevant to operations and the value chain and prioritize impacts, dependencies and opportunities for regeneration. 
• Commit: Set a baseline and commit to ambitious, time-bound, science-informed goals and targets to both halt and reverse the loss of nature. 
• Measure & value: Use validated, inter-related indicators to measure nature outcomes that inform decision-making. 
• Act: Systematically apply the mitigation hierarchy within and beyond corporate operations to reduce pressures and have positive contributions across value chains. 
• Transform: Collaborate to achieve nature-positive outcomes across all spheres of control and influence. 
• Disclose & report: Prepare to disclose material nature-related information. 

WBCSD is currently scoping across the organization and with other stakeholders to apply these elements consistently for the coherent development of nature-positive roadmaps for priority value-chains. Based on the analysis of the World Economic Forum on the Nature Economy Report Series (2020), BCG’s report The Biodiversity Crisis Is a Business Crisis (2021) and the interest of WBCSD members, we have identified the following priority sectors for the Nature Action project work in 2022: land use (including agriculture and forestry), built environment and energy. 

Process 

The building blocks are the outcome of a multistakeholder dialogue that brought together more than 70 stakeholders representing more than 60 different organizations across disciplines, sectors, and value chains over the course of three virtual sessions. The framing and content of the building blocks have been iterated a number of times over the last few months following each dialogue session. 

Existing guidance includes the Infinity Loop by the Capitals Coalition, the process to set SBTs for Nature by the Science Based Targets Network, and the steps to becoming Nature-Positive by Business for Nature. All steps follow the same logic.