Few films in recent years have captured the distortion of our economic system as sharply as Triangle of Sadness. In the movie natural forces creates a chaotic shift in power between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ as the luxurious yacht, the movies central décor, sinks. The grotesqueness of the scene of the sinking yacht reminds us of a fundamental systemic flaw being that our economy doesn’t function in silo from nature.
With the work of the Capitals Coalition and the projects we’re involved in, we provide pathways to transform the system in which we operate to create a more resilient economy and society that functions within the limits of what our planet can support.
Since September 2022, the EU-Horizon funded project The Strengthening Understanding and Strategies of Business to Assess and Integrate Nature (SUSTAIN) has been working to inspire businesses, financial institutions, and regulatory bodies to ensure they incorporate nature in decision-making, to enable the current economic system to operate within the limits of what our planet can support. SUSTAIN is now coming to an end, and it’s time to reflect on its learnings, achievements, and next steps.
The Thought Paper ‘Changing the rules of the game’ sets out the triangle of inaction that business, finance and consumers find themselves in. Similarly to the movie’s struggle, this triangle of inaction shows the gridlock in which our system is stuck in and the difficulties we face in addressing nature loss: each group is waiting for the other to define the agenda and take responsibility for driving forward action towards Nature Positive. Rather than shipwrecking the system, ‘Changing the rules of the game’ proposes how to bend the curve to a triangle of action. Each system parts, business, finance, regulators, consumer, takes responsibility in shifting from a do no harm to nature positive actions.
During the project’s lifespan, SUSTAIN has developed a variety of resources designed for each part depending on the stage of action they are at. Together with the Thought Paper, several case studies in the energy, agri-food and built environment sector were developed, highlighting practical real-world insights showing how leaders’ companies are identifying and assessing their nature-related issues, building upon established frameworks and guidelines. To improve the screening of impacts and dependencies on nature, the knowledge base behind the ENCORE tool was updated. And the Nature Tools Compass, providing a deeper dive into risks and opportunities, was launched to further guide businesses and finance on their nature journey and provide them guidance on the best available tools and frameworks of each step of TNFD’s LEAP approach. Last but not least, an inventory on risk mitigation strategies was developed to provide actionable guidance to businesses within the agriculture, energy, and built environment sector to help mitigate their impacts on nature.
The SUSTAIN project emphasizes that achieving a Nature Positive economy requires coordinated action from business, but also policy and finance, supported by robust tools, science-based strategies, and systemic reform. Policy reform is essential to achieving Nature Positive outcomes. The influential role central banks can play in acting as catalysts in transitioning to a nature positive economy is shown in the study of the Dutch Central Bank. Also, the investment blueprints produced during the project enable financial institutions seeking to positively impact biodiversity to understand existing investment frameworks better.
The work of the SUSTAIN consortium marks a turning point in the field of assessing and integrating nature in decision-making. Today, nature is recognized as a core material risk to business performance and global stability. The work of SUSTAIN is proving that nature is also a business and financial opportunity. The questions can no longer be how we should assess our impacts and dependencies on nature, or if there is sufficient data. But rather, how can we act to move from nature as a risk to nature as a business and financial opportunity? We invite you to take these outputs, use them in your boardrooms and investment committees, and help us build a resilient economy that functions within our planetary boundaries. It’s time to be part of the triangle of action.
SUSTAIN is co-funded by the EU, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee. The project partner consortium, made up of Capitals Coalition, Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, UNEP-WCMC, WBCSD, ShareAction, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, ETH Zürich, Fundación Biodiversidad and IUCN secretariat and European Regional Office, came together with the ambition to facilitate transformative changes within the global economy to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
