Towards Nature Positive supply chains: From biodiversity impacts to organisational action

Éilish Farrelly , Talitha Bromwich, Sophus O.S.E zu Ermgassen, Joseph W Bull, Hollie Booth, Heather Needham, Alice Karuri, Samuel Thuo Mungai, Kamau Mbarire, Thomas B White, Emily Stott, Charlotte Maddinson, E.J. Milner-Gulland

Large organisations are critical to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, yet most of their impacts are hidden in complex supply chains. Robust strategies to fully identify, quantify, trace, and begin to mitigate these impacts remain rare. Here we present a generalisable workflow for assessing and addressing supply chain impacts on biodiversity and then apply it to the University of Oxford’s biodiversity impacts. We show how organisations can evaluate traceability and transparency in their supply chains, estimate region-specific biodiversity impacts, and harness collaborations for impact mitigation. Among Oxford's 131 highest-spend suppliers, only 18 disclosed raw material origins and just two offered product life cycle assessments, evidencing the major traceability gap and underscoring the systemic barriers to accountability and need for supplier engagement. Using Oxford’s coffee supply chain as a case study, we apply life cycle impact assessment to estimate the coffee procurement biodiversity footprint and demonstrate how collaborations could translate these insights into practical interventions. By shifting the focus beyond diagnosing supply chains as a major driver of biodiversity loss to delivering actionable solutions, this study provides a scalable pathway for large organisations to contribute to global nature recovery.