Mainstreaming the Topic of Biodiversity in Corporate Sustainability Management – Experience and Recommendations from the ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ Initiative

On the occasion of the Thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD-COP 13), to be held in Cancún, Mexico, in December, 'Biodiversity in Good Company' advocates better integration of biological diversity in corporate sustainability management.

Our natural capital is under pressure: the loss of biodiversity is continuing at alarming speed – with regionally very strongly differentiated consequences. This is associated with high risks because human wellbeing is existentially reliant on intact ecosystems. Biological diversity is both part of our “natural capital” as well as the prerequisite for numerous ecosystem services.

The current strategies for the preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity on a national and international level are aimed at the year 2020. Within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the international community agreed on a strategic plan and 20 objectives in 2010: the Aichi Targets. A number of important half-life evaluations took place worldwide in 2015. The interim balances conclude that the targets set so far will be missed by a long way if much more ambitious steps are not implemented. 

One of the reasons: Unlike other political, societal and business interests, biodiversity goals still frequently have little clout in evaluation and decision making processes. This concerns basic questions of policy development and control in a number of policy areas: such as agriculture and forestry, future housing and transport development, energy and climate policy, resource and raw materials strategies, marine policy, and the financing of global nature conservation and biodiversity protection. “Mainstreaming biodiversity” – taking into consideration the values of biodiversity and functioning ecosystems in all critical sectors and policies – is therefore the topic of the 13th Conference of the Parties to the CBD in December 2016 in Cancún, Mexico. 

Businesses are indispensable players in all sectors, and must help find solutions within their scopes of action. Mainstreaming is therefore also important in companies and industry decision-making processes. What prerequisites and agendas need to be set for this mobilisation to succeed? As the ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ Initiative, we are using CBD-COP 13 as a trigger to compile our experience and recommendations. We focus our attention on decision makers in companies, politics and society who play a part in reaching the ambitious Aichi targets in joint efforts. In particular, we call on companies to integrate biodiversity within their business activities and actions, and to provide an insight into success factors, as well as challenges in their effective realisation.  

Publication in English: Mainstreaming the Topic of Biodiversity in Corporate Sustainability Management – Experience and Recommendations from the ‘Biodiversity in Good Company’ Initiative

Publication in German: Biologische Vielfalt als Thema unternehmerischer Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien stärken – Erfahrungen und Empfehlungen der 'Biodiversity in Good Company' Initiative

Meet us on the margins of CBD-COP 13