As companies’ sustainability efforts begin to move beyond carbon reduction, a new report from Sweco highlights the untapped business potential of protecting and restoring nature. Despite the growing risk of biodiversity loss, only 16% of Europe’s 50 largest manufacturing and energy companies currently recognise biodiversity as financially material. The report calls on business leaders to integrate biodiversity into core operations – both to manage risks and to unlock new growth opportunities.
Estimates show that globally over €50 trillion in annual economic activity is moderately or highly dependent on nature and the World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss among the top global risks in the next decade. Key industries – from mining and forestry to infrastructure and energy – are directly dependent on healthy ecosystems. Wetlands and rivers, for example, support critical services such as transport, water supply and cooling for power generation.
In a new report, Sweco has analysed the 50 largest European manufacturing and energy companies by revenue. While 82% consider biodiversity a material issue in terms of environmental impact, only 16% view it as financially material.
“Sweco’s analysis shows that while most of the companies acknowledge biodiversity as a material issue from an environmental impact perspective, only a small minority link it directly to financial performance. This means that increasing biodiversity entails untapped business value for companies– as estimates show that nature-positive business models could generate up to €10 trillion in new value, and integrating biodiversity and climate strategies could help create 395 million jobs by 2030,” said Piia Pessala, Executive Director in Biodiversity at Sweco and one of the authors of the report.
