Biopharma giant GSK and luxury brand owner Kering are among five corporations that have had their nature strategies accepted into Business for Nature’s campaign ‘It’s Now for Nature’’, as part of a global campaign to help companies find practical solutions to addressing nature risk and opportunities.
That should be of deep concern to corporations and their investors. A 2023 analysis from PwC reported that over half of the world’s gross domestic product is moderately or highly dependent on nature – and put the value of that dependency at $58 trillion. It seems highly unlikely that those less 'dependent' will not be affected by shocks to the supply chain from 'dependent' companies.
The campaign was initially launched in 2023, intended to help business to understand the benefits of a corporate nature strategy. An effective nature strategy businesses can reduce negative impacts, boost business resilience, bring new commercial opportunities, create long-term value and strengthen climate and sustainability goals – the campaign is intended to highlight examples of what a good nature strategy looks like.
As Claire Lund, vice president of sustainability at GSK points out, the challenge is that when digging into company risk profiles it’s easy to see a focus on internal risk, on Enterprise Risk Management, but not on the potential nature related risks associated with operations and the value chain. What GSK recognised when it set its environmental ambition back in 2020 was that as a biopharma company, GSK sits at the intersection between health, nature and climate – and that couldn’t be ignored.