Supply Chain Resilience

Financial and technical investments in supply chain resilience seeks to decrease supply and price volatility in supply chains due to environmental factors and improve long term sustainability of raw material production for business. Complex supply chains for raw materials including commodities challenge consumer goods companies’ ability to assure price and supply resilience.  A wide range of investments and actions can be undertaken by companies and governments to improve sustainability and decrease the impact of food, fiber, and other renewable raw material production on nature. These include anti-deforestation commitments, adherence to sustainable sourcing certifications, technical support and financial incentives down the supply chain, and investments in appropriate technology or research to improve the sustainability and productivity of raw material production.  

One example of an inhouse effort to improve supply chain resilience is Whole Foods Market’s use of seafood sustainability certification and rating programs.  The supermarket chain only sells wild caught fish that have either been certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or either earning Green (Best Choices) or Yellow (Good Alternatives) status by the Seafood Watch rating program.  These tools help reduce the supermarket’s purchases of unsustainable seafood while also providing transparency on seafood supply chains to consumers. 

 Corporate Supply Chain Management

Sustainable corporate supply chain management refers to targeted initiatives meant to improve the sustainability, cost effectiveness, and risk profile of a company's supply chain. It includes a wide range of actions that combine reducing environmental impacts with efforts that can also save money, reduce value chain volatility (price and supply), improve supplier relations, better manage brand reputation, and reduce other political, social and environmental risks. Examples include avoiding deforestation in raw materials sourcing, tracking or greening commodity sources, replacing toxic or otherwise harmful materials, etc.

Conservation Business

Private or public companies that engage in conservation supportive business activities including ecotourism, sustainable fishing and forestry, and other businesses that employ best management practices and contribute to nature conservation. A growing range of businesses have identified opportunities that contribute to conservation through their business models. Opportunities range from high technology development for tracking environmental conditions through landscape level activities for watershed management and ecological forestry. One interesting example is Ibis Rice™. Ibis Rice has been built around a program by the Wildlife Conservation Society working with rice farmers in Cambodia to protect the breeding areas for the endangered giant ibis. This social enterprise markets the rice under that brand, Ibis Rice, which is Certified Wildlife Friendly – combining a high quality product with clear conservation outcomes.

Products sold for conservation or wildlife

A range of products from chocolate, water bottles, toys, cloths, etc. are developed and sold to help generate profit for conservation and endangered species. A significant percentage of profit should go to target NGOs or conservation efforts or the product may be seen as benefitting from marketing nature while not actually contributing (green washing).

Promotion of sustainable tourism

The promotion of sustainable tourism through an enabling legal framework and direct or indirect incentives. Responsible travel to natural areas can provide an alternative sources of income for the conservation of protected areas and the welfare of local communities. Receipts from tourists include accommodation and catering as well as any expenditure in the country where they travel to. The Government benefits from the direct and/or indirect taxation. To promote sustainable tourism is particularly critical in the early development stages and can direct tourism investment towards sustainable infrastructure and tourism activities.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has evolved from targeted corporate giving towards more integration with companyies’ business models in what is mostly termed corporate sustainability.  It can be described as follows: “the integration of sustainability thinking and practice in business operations helps companies live up to their responsibilities as global citizens and local neighbors and can significantly strengthen business resilience and profitability. Effective corporate sustainability can offer clear business benefits for operations, reputation, new products and markets, and finance and can significantly reduce business risks.” (BIOFIN Catalogue, accessed January 10th, 2020).  This encompasses a range of voluntary instruments[1] impacting firms or industries that lead them to, “improve their environmental performance beyond what the law demands.” Emerging business opportunities in non-compliance markets exist for water management, carbon offsets, eco-conscious consumers and both genetic and ecological resources from nature. This includes the use of voluntary third-party certification for sustainable products such as forestry (Forest Stewardship Council), fisheries (Marine Stewardship Council), and food (e.g. organic, Rainforest Alliance) certification.  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts seek to achieve multiple outcomes including attaining ESG commitments for investors, improving employee satisfaction and retention, and protect and promote a company’s image, brand value and legal standing.  Often these activities will focus on issues pertinent to the companies’ operations or clients and that have added value for the business.  A recent initiative that deserves attention is the advertising industry’s participation in the UNDP’s Lion’s Share program that allocates 1% of advertising spends to a fund for nature when the ads include animals.

The conservation NGO Conservation International (CI) has supported corporate sustainability practices through its program, The Catapult Collaborative for Corporate Sustainability.  Businesses that become members of the initiative, which have included large public companies such as Walmart and United Airlines, receive a variety of benefits from CI including advisory services, access to practical decision tools and research, recognition for being part of the program, and more.  

Bio-prospecting

Bioprospecting is the systematic search for biochemical and genetic material in nature in order to develop commercially-valuable products for pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetic and other applications. The rationale is to extract the maximum commercial value from genetic resources and indigenous knowledge, while creating a fair compensation system that can benefit all.

Voluntary Climate Financing

Voluntary climate financing is when individuals, companies and organizations finance climate change actions (mitigation or adaptation) with no regulatory or market benefits. Voluntary financing occurs for a variety of climate mitigation actions including sustainable forestry (see REDD+), agriculture, and rangelands. Companies and individuals purchase voluntary carbon credits for moral, public relations, and internal policy purposes. Some companies have instigated internal carbon trading (i.e. Microsoft) to improve carbon efficiency.

Corporate Sustainability

The integration of sustainability thinking and practice in business operations helps companies live up to their responsibilities as global citizens and local neighbors and can significantly strengthen business resilience and profitability. Effective corporate sustainability can offer clear business benefits for operations, reputation, new products and markets, and finance and can significantly reduce business risks. A vast literature and international standards can help companies to follow more sustainable business practices.

Effective procurement

Cluster of cost-effectiveness measures that can enhance an organization's procurement practices and thus free resources for programming. Typical measures include central procurement, digital procurement, process flow analysis, supplier optimization, green procurement, etc. While not specific to biodiversity, these measures can and should be considered by conservation organizations to optimize their spending practices. The resources saved can be reinvested in conservation.

Sustainability standards and certification (voluntary)

Voluntary, usually third party-assessed, norms and standards relating to environmental, social, ethical and food safety issues, adopted by companies to demonstrate the performance of or the sourcing of their products. They include eco-labels, organic and fair trade certifications.

Eco-labels

Distinctive label that signifies that a company's product follows recognized eco/environmental standards. Eco-labels can include specific environmental (or social) information about the product raw materials, manufacture, and use benefits. Certification is voluntary.

Sustainability Standards: Finance Sector

Voluntary, usually third party-assessed, norms and standards relating to environmental, social, ethical issues, adopted by financial companies and institutions to demonstrate their performance or the sustainability of their products.

Voluntary Offsets

This category includes voluntary instruments designed to compensate for planned impacts on nature. It includes all voluntary carbon, wetland and biodiversity offsets as well as any other nature based offsets such as water quality, water temperature, stormwater capture, and other forms of company actions to reduce or offset its climate, land and water footprints. Offsets that are required by banks and other investors can be included in this category if there are not regulatory requirements (i.e. compulsory offsets) obliging a business to implement or finance an offset (compulsory offsets are included in Economic Instruments).  Voluntary biodiversity offsets are primarily seen around mining and other extractive industries, hotels in sensitive ecological areas, and can be combined with other incentives towards land or water stewardship. As an example, there is an annual State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets report that surveys the status of voluntary carbon offsets.

REDD+

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is a climate mitigation practice that reduces carbon emissions through documented changes to forest protection and management practices. Since forests are important repositories of carbon, reducing deforestation or improving forest management can avoid the emissions of carbon. REDD+ can secure financing for protecting forests and for enhancing sustainable forestry practices. Currently available through voluntary carbon markets, REDD+ projects may be part of national compliance mechanisms in the near future. REDD+ projects seek to include biodiversity and social criteria in their design and implementation and are a very cost effective means to climate mitigation.