Leading companies recognise that a prosperous business relies upon nature. Nature’s health is under pressure from upward trends for consumption, population and economic growth across the globe. This creates long-term risks to business, consumers and wider society who depend on nature. Through its Business and Nature team, CISL collaborates with companies to identify what the ecological crisis means for their businesses and take steps to transform their operations and strategies. We provide the structured path that businesses need to establish sustainability solutions and create momentum at scale. |
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Catchment Leadership NetworkA collaborative initiative that aims to drive a step change in catchment management by bringing together businesses from across sectors with UK government and NGO stakeholders. |
Business for NatureCISL is a key partner in helping this coalition demonstrate business action and amplify a powerful business voice calling for governments to reverse nature loss. |
Thought leadership and news
Framing natural capital assessment in the right way for business
17 October 2017
17 October 2017 – Dr Mike Sharman, outlines the growing case for businesses to understand their impact and dependencies on nature.
Yorkshire Water and The Crown Estate join the Natural Capital Impact Group
5 October 2017
5 October 2017 – The Natural Capital Impact Group are delighted to announce two new members have joined its global network of companies who are working together to determine how business can better sustain the natural world and its resources.
4 July 2017
July 2017 – Many leading food and beverage sector organisations have demonstrated progress in managing natural capital impacts in their direct operations, including greenhouse gas emissions and waste. Many recognise, however, that the largest impacts occur in their upstream value chains, particularly on farms where raw materials are produced. A key natural capital resource is soil, and managing soil health is one way in which businesses may be able to reduce their negative land use impacts.
9 June 2017
October 2014 – E.Valu.A.Te: the Game, launched in 2014, this aims to explain what natural capital valuation means for businesses and what decisions it should influence. This interactive game builds scenarios and allows users to explore what critical business decisions need to consider the value on natural resources.
New research from CISL highlights business need for simple and consistent natural capital metrics
8 June 2017
13 June 2017 – Businesses are becoming more aware of their impacts and dependencies upon the natural environment but there is a lack of consistency and links to commercial drivers in the metrics used to quantify impacts and dependencies across businesses.
The commercial logic to measuring natural capital
8 June 2017
June 2017 – The launch of the Natural Capital Protocol has led businesses to become more aware of their impacts and dependencies upon the natural environment. However, a need has been identified to link to commercial drivers to these impacts and dependencies across businesses. Simple metrics and key performance indicators that relate these two could be a next step to embedding natural capital into business operations and strategies. This working paper sets out the outcomes of a small piece of qualitative research. It explores the use of different metrics for standard business processes by sustainability professionals and their relationship to natural capital measures.
Healthy ecosystem metric framework
16 May 2017
May 2017 – Investors and companies want to demonstrate their positive impacts on natural capital and show they are reversing the trend of natural environment degradation. The challenge is to identify metrics that are relevant for businesses’ decision-making processes, whilst being simple and practical for investors to use. This working paper outlines the concept for such metrics as developed by members of the Natural Capital Impact Group. It explores how the metric can be categorised as impacts upon the quality and quantity of soil, water and biodiversity. The paper explains the simple methodology that can be applied for business to calculate their impacts consistently and comparably, focusing particularly on the biodiversity component of this metric (soil and water components will be described in separate papers).
16 May 2017
22 May 2017 – On World Biodiversity Day, a global network of companies, including Kering, Interserve, Mars and Asda, working together to determine how business can sustain the natural world and its resources, has released the initial stage of their work in developing a metric to help corporates improve their impact on the natural environment.
How businesses measure their impacts on nature
27 April 2017
May 2017 – Opportunities exist for investors and companies to demonstrate positive impacts and show they are reversing the trend of natural capital degradation. This working paper explores the challenges with identifying metrics that are relevant for businesses’ decision-making processes, whilst being simple and practical for investors to use. It is concluded that there is a lack of comprehensive, commonly accepted metrics that can be used by business and investors to consistently demonstrate their impact upon natural capital. CISL are working with a group of investors and multinational companies to explore and develop these metrics in response to this gap. This working paper represents the first output from CISL led research.
Sustainability in Turbulent Times – Lessons from the Nexus Network
20 March 2017
21 March 2017 – The Nexus Network has launched a new report, Sustainability in Turbulent Times, which highlights their learnings on how to tackle the nexus challenge – the interdependency between food, energy, water and the environment.
