What nature positive means in a business context?
Echoes – A Voice from Uncharted Waters, by Mathias Gmachl, a sound and light installation in Manhattan inviting passersby to pay attention to the environment surrounding us
May East, Jessica Von Farkas and Anna Lerner – reflections from the Sustainability Track dialogue during IBM Z Day
Nature-positive companies are gaining momentum. They include and transcend conventional and incremental corporate social responsibility and ESG strategies. They challenge us to move beyond mere damage control in our economic activities and ask: what if we not only minimize harm but actively improve natural ecosystems that support our businesses? A nature-positive approach promotes biodiversity, carbon reduction, energy transition, water purification, transforms and reduces the use of materials. Essentially, it harmonises people, planet and purpose through life-enhancing interventions.
The question of what nature positive means in a business context was at the heart of our dialogue during the IBM Z Day. We discussed how such a shift in mindset and business models originates from responsible leadership and how nature-positive targets and actions should reflect a collective vision, be science-based and integrated, and measured in a timely fashion.
Pollinator gardens designed with the intent of growing specific nectar and pollen-producing plants also provide life-enhancing places for humans.
Picture to be substituted by IBM polinator gardens in São Paulo
We heard how IBM has been establishing pollinator gardens across their global locations. This nature-positive initiative acknowledges the vital role of pollinators – birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, and especially bees – in sustaining diverse and thriving ecosystems. This is a simple yet effective intervention – planting suitable flowering plants that attract and provide habitat resources for these essential pollinators, supports the urban ecosystems where the offices are located, which in turn support wider habitats. It represents a commitment beyond individual site-level habitat management, as IBM is also extending the impact of this programme to the communities in which it operates through employee engagement.
How can we sustainably bring back something that has been lost?
Our lifestyles and linear economies exert extreme pressure on living systems. A nature positive attitude emerges from a regenerative mindset and circular mode of work. This approach does not limit nature as a mere resource for economic activity but as a source of life. For nature positive to work we must design interventions that infuse more life, vitality, and viability into the systems we are involved with. Additionally, we must ensure that our businesses, financial practices, and communities can co-evolve with ecological systems over time.
To advance this line of thinking, we heard from the BMW Foundation network that fosters critical alliances among 2,300 responsible leaders across 100 countries, on the significance of responsible leadership as a pre-condition for nature positive businesses to thrive. Among its responsible leaders are those who acknowledge the intricate bond between their work and the biosphere, and are actively reducing the impact of their operations while striving to contribute positively to natural cycles.
Traceless® biomaterials (picture ©traceless)
Imagine embarking in a world of biomaterials where we no longer use hydro-carbon based plastics!
An example is BMW Foundation accelerator programme, RESPOND that has nurtured a vibrant community of start-ups dedicated to revolutionising production processes and business models with a focus on planetary well-being. One area of innovation within this community revolves around biomaterials – materials sensitively designed to interact with biological systems in a bidirectional manner. Traceless is such a business exemplifying a nature-positive business model. The start-up ingeniously repurposes by-products of agricultural food production, like brewery residues transforming them into the biomaterial traceless®, mitigating the resource-intensive production of conventional plastics. In a landmark achievement, Traceless secured €36.6 million investment in 2023, a testament to its commitment to establishing the first-of-its-kind industry plant for a bio-circular alternative to plastic. Imagine embarking in a world of biomaterials where we no longer use hydro-carbon based plastics!
Climate Collective
Blockchain, remote sensors, AI are some of the emerging technologies being explored to address urgent environmental issues such as biodiversity loss.
Nature-positive is a collective effort. This is illustrated by the Climate Collective innovation network of entrepreneurs and scientists who are using digital tech to advance nature and climate goals. The collective is utilising digital technologies such as AI and blockchain to help corporations decarbonize faster and with higher integrity, allowing for more cost-efficient and transparent NetZero climate pledges. Digital technologies are also allowing frontline communities and indigenous groups to access new sources of funding for biodiversity protection or climate resilience via direct Payments for Ecosystem Services and compensation for data collection or monitoring of biodiversity hotspots. In the realm of Climate Tech, numerous companies are harnessing digital tools such as satellite imagery and digital financial infrastructure. This enables the creation of a new era of end-to-end digital carbon markets, resulting in significant market efficiencies and the generation of high-integrity carbon and biodiversity credits.
“When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to lift the entire system to a higher order”
Biodiversity is essential to sustain life on the living planet. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is one of the most ambitious environmental agreements of the 21st century fostering a global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050. Among the Framework’s key elements, are 4 goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030. Tools, metrics, methodological frameworks, and data are emerging to help businesses understand the condition of ecosystems within their areas of operation and along their value chains, to assess their impacts on them, and help them meet emerging voluntary and mandatory disclosure and accounting requirements. Building a shared future for all life, entails shared responsibility and whole society engagement. Nature positive businesses have a critical role to play in this shared vision.
The Nature Positive Business Pledge is a commitment by business who are paving the way in halting and reversing their impact on nature.
IBM Z Day 2023 offered 80 sessions with 200+ speakers across five content-rich technical tracks: IBM Z, App Modernization, Data & AI, Sustainability and IBM Z Skills Acceleration. Watch out for IBM Z Day 2024!