The Tools to Move from ‘Do No Harm’ to ‘Nature-Positive’: Planet and Partners Release Report at COP16

Earlier this year, Planet, ERM, Salesforce, and NatureMetrics launched the NatureTech Alliance at the World Economic Forum in Davos to help companies harness advanced data and technology to tackle their most urgent nature challenges. This week at COP16, this Alliance released a new report with insights from leading companies about their nature performance journeys – what they’re learning, where they’re stuck. We identify key steps to move from “Do No Harm” to “Nature-Positive” through thoughtful and timely integration of data and tech, and show how leading performers are already on their way.

We’ve included our joint forward below and invite you to read the full report here. 

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“Forward: A new era for nature tech”

“As the eyes of the world turn to Cali, Colombia, for the next UN Biodiversity Conference, COP16, it is increasingly clear that companies are prioritizing biodiversity and combating the growing nature crisis. The scale of the crisis is clear: global biodiversity loss is accelerating at unprecedented rates. According to the Stockholm Resilience Centre’s 2023 Planetary Boundaries study, the current rate of species extinction is tens to a hundred times higher than the average over the last ten million years. These extraordinary losses threaten ecosystems, economies – and (they are now realizing) companies directly. 

For many years, companies have been conducting environmental impact assessments, identifying the presence of threatened and endangered species, and managing air and water pollution. Despite these efforts, biodiversity loss continues to increase: simply minimizing harm is no longer enough. The time has come for businesses to shift from reducing their environmental footprint to actively advancing net benefits to nature throughout their operations, supply chains, and products.

Companies must step up not just to be ‘good corporate citizens’ but because it is increasingly clear that the continued success of their businesses depends on it.

Two years ago, the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) of a global bank embarked on their nature journey, assuming it would follow the same path as tackling carbon. After all, if they could gain C-suite buy-in for decarbonization and address investors’ demands on stranded fossil fuel assets, how difficult could bugs and bunnies be?

A year in, the complexity of the task became evident. The breadth of issues, depth of business impact, and location-specific differences across their asset portfolio – exacerbated by seemingly infinite data sets – made the challenge feel overwhelming.

According to recent interviews with leading companies, this CSO’s experience is far from unique. Many are only beginning to grasp the magnitude of the biodiversity crisis and are turning to new data providers and technologies for solutions.

In mid-2024 the members of the Nature Tech Alliance—ERM, Salesforce, Planet, and NatureMetrics—assessed the current state of corporate biodiversity measurement, management, and disclosure through interviews with 18 leading companies. All of them are global corporations that are the ‘users’ of nature data, rather than technology providers looking for new markets (which are being well covered by excellent reports by Nature 4 Climate and others).

This white paper results from that collaboration. It outlines key pathways for businesses as they navigate new frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) – all while addressing the pressing and practical challenges of biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and climate change. 

We offer practical insights for CSOs and CTOs as they guide their organizations through this next set of challenges. In short, aligning with their overall business goals: working across the value chain to achieve landscape-scale impact, by knitting together the tech architecture vital to deliver enterprise-wide transformation.”