Business transformation for nature recovery event - Entopia Building, Cambridge, 3 July 2024

CISL will convene a group of leading businesses to discuss the role of businesses in delivering nature-positive outcomes. The event, to be followed by a networking lunch, will cover the following areas: 

• How innovative business models can support nature-positive outcomes 
• How businesses can use their voice to support ambitious nature policies 
• How businesses can respond to nature-related financial disclosures 

Participants will benefit from insights from recent CISL work, and be given the opportunity to share learnings, insights and best practice with other organisations at the forefront of nature positive innovation. 

Background

CISL is working to understand how system-level transformation of the economy can be achieved to support nature positive outcomes. Increasingly, our business and finance leadership groups recognise the critical role natural systems have to play in underpinning sustainable economic activity, but also in securing positive outcomes for people and the climate.  

Our recent work covers areas as diverse as an engagement guide for financial institutions on related nature and climate risks; guidance for the agri-food sector on nature; and a primer on setting science-based nature targets for fashion companies, to name just a few examples.  

Building on this expertise, we are now seeking to understand how business models can be transformed to deliver positive outcomes for nature, and are looking to engage with a broad spectrum of businesses as part of this. We want to understand how the broader supply chain across different sectors can catalyse business innovation, including the creation of new business models where value creation is based on delivering nature positive outcomes. 

This event will bring together businesses of different sizes from a range of sectors to participate in an open dialogue on the challenges, opportunities and learnings from their efforts to integrate nature into the core of their business. We hope this will be the beginning of a ‘coalition of the willing’ who might be interested in continued engagement on this theme over a period of time. 

We will also explore the role of business in shaping national and international policy on nature, as well as business capacity for nature assessment (under frameworks such as TNFD). 

Likely format and agenda items

Plenary session 

• Exploring the global landscape – the context we find ourselves in and why this matters for the discussions today 
• Keynote from a leading voice on nature 
• Business briefing on CISL’s current thinking and research into business models that generate positive outcomes for nature 
• Short insights from business on their efforts to integrate nature into decision-making processes 

Breakout sessions will likely be divided into 3 groups: 

1. Exploring the barriers and enablers businesses are experiencing to the scaling and adoption of nature positive business models 
2. Understanding the current capacity for undertaking nature assessments such as TNFD within business, and the role of finance in determining the action business takes on nature 
3. Investigating the role of business in shaping policy at the global and national level, along with a discussion of the levers available for business to engage policymakers on nature 

Networking lunch

Register your interest here

Please contact edmund.dickens@cisl.cam.ac.uk for further information.