A Typology of Corporate Actions for a Nature-Positive Future

Ashley H.Y. Bang , Thomas B White, Leon Bennun, Hollie Booth, Talitha Bromwich, Joseph W Bull, Éilish Farrelly, Rachel N Martin, E.J. Milner-Gulland, Malcolm Starkey, Laura J Sonter

Reaching the global goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss will require a step-change in corporate action. Whilst clear guidance already exists for companies to take responsibility for and mitigate biodiversity loss caused by their own operations, delivering global nature-positive outcomes requires higher ambition and extended accountability for impacts beyond companies’ direct control. This includes addressing indirect, diffuse or historical (or pre-baseline) impacts related to operations, as well as biodiversity loss caused by suppliers and consumers along upstream and downstream value chains. As businesses look to contribute to the global nature-positive goal, they face a broad and dynamic landscape of guidance frameworks, standards and expectations, making it challenging to know which actions are proportionate and defensible, and how they best fit together as part of a comprehensive nature strategy. In this paper, we provide a typology of positive actions that businesses can take, which, when implemented together, can contribute to the global nature-positive goal. We outline key factors and considerations for selecting appropriate actions and provide a decision tree to help businesses navigate towards a coherent and defensible nature strategy. Multiple factors can influence the decision-making process in a corporate nature strategy, including: i) whether actions are addressing specific negative impacts, ii) the types, timescale and locations associated with the negative impacts being addressed, iii) the equivalency of proposed biodiversity gains to losses, iv) the stage of the mitigation hierarchy, and v) the scales of action proposed. Underlying all these factors are questions around uncertainty in biodiversity losses and gains, the responsibility that a business should take for different types of impact, and the level of ambition required for meaningful nature-positive contributions. We provide examples for each action in the typology, outline key principles, and identify opportunities to overcome the challenges posed by high uncertainties and unclear responsibility.