In the pantheon of greenwashing and “greenwishing,” “nature-positive” had a special place—until this week. Meant to describe a world where nature is being restored and is regenerating, nature-positive had no clear business meaning. Is your business nature-positive? Who knows. Is your ambition to be nature-positive? Good for you. But no one can tell you whether that ambition makes sense.
All that is about to change. On Wednesday, the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) announced the world’s first scientifically based targets for nature. It will start with SBTN helping 17 companies define, measure, and improve their impact on nature. If successful, it will give the business world a template for becoming meaningfully nature-positive.
“Greenwashing is what we’re aiming to go against [with these] science-based targets,” Erin Billman, the executive director of SBTN, told me. “We will ensure that companies are setting measurable, time-bound targets, and that they can be held accountable.”
In the first stage, SBTN will focus on validating objectives regarding freshwater, land, biodiversity, and oceans, providing participating companies and their stakeholders with visibility into what targets and actions make sense. As of 2024, the companies will show their progress, after which other companies will get their chance to officially join the effort. (Technical guidelines are already available for all to consult.)
To bring its project to life, SBTN chose its initial group of 17 partners from some 50 companies that were already working on their own, unvalidated nature-positive strategy. The list includes food and drink producers such as AB InBev, Nestlé and Suntory, pharma giant GSK, retailers like H&M and Tesco, cement maker Holcim, and luxury groups like Kering and LVMH.
“We had set our own target date of 2030 to be nature-positive,” Claire Lund, global vice president of sustainability at GSK, told me. As part of that strategy, GSK was already taking “no regret” actions, such as aiming to reduce its freshwater use by 20%, and to be water neutral in its operations and at key suppliers in water-stressed regions within the decade. But by joining the SBTN initiative, Lund said, the company can now “make sure [its target] is credible.”
With SBTN's guidance, GSK hopes to learn whether its focus areas are the right ones and its ambitions are in line with what is both needed and feasible. “For us, this is an evolution, rather than a revolution,” Lund said. “What it gives us is the credibility that what we’re doing is not only right, but we are continuing to develop the right approach on the nature-positive journey.”
The project’s ultimate goal? That the framework helps companies around the world to “do their part for a nature-positive, net-zero, equitable future,” Billman said. “Companies have to do their part to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, and get us on a path to full nature restoration by 2050.”
Is that realistic? “I choose to be an optimist," she said. "You cannot do this job without optimism.”
Though voluntary, the SBTN initiative should help the nature-positive movement get off its greenwishing pedestal and “create an ambition loop," Billman said, that puts companies that prioritize nature action "on the cutting edge." Besides, she points out, "There is no time to lose."
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Peter Vanham
Executive Editor, Fortune
peter.vanham@fortune.com
