Companies in the mining, property, and industrial sectors should have enough data at hand to take the first step to address their impacts on nature and biodiversity loss, according to a new guide for these industries published Tuesday.

Analysis and investment firm Pollination published a nature guide for the three aforementioned sectors to help them get started on what it described as “nature intelligence”.

“What we are hearing more and more is that leaders across mining, property, and industrials recognise the need to act now on nature, but don’t feel they are ready or able,” Pollination Managing Director Beth Keddie said.

“There’s a good understanding that clear and reliable data is key to mitigating the risk exposure companies face when it comes to nature. But many of those we talk to feel they don’t have access to the data they need or in the form they need to get started responding to the challenges of the nature agenda.”

However, according to the guide, it is likely sectors in these spaces will already have enough of an idea of the most material short-term nature risks and enough data to be able to take the first step of carrying out a “high-level nature scan”.

This scan, described in the guide, maps each step of a company’s value chain, with associated economic activities mapped to each of these steps.

Value chain steps could include things like materials extraction and production, design and construction, operations and maintenance, and end-of-life and demolition.

From here, businesses can begin to build a picture of where and how they interact with nature, the guide said.

“In our experience, most companies in the mining, property, and industrial sectors will find there is ample data out there to readily complete this first step given these sectors are highly regulated,” it said.

These sources could be drawn from within the companies themselves as well as from publicly available environmental data.

Based on this scan, companies can create a set of hypotheses about the extent and shape of their nature risk exposure and pilot projects can be created to test these hypotheses.

The results from these projects can create insights both for accelerating ‘no regrets’ actions as well as improved data, which would help create a growing capability on understanding and acting on nature risks and opportunities.

An example raised based on findings from pilot projects included a global pharmaceutical client discovering an unexpected material nature risk which could have meant shortages and potential revenue loss if not addressed.

Keddie said where data should be a logical starting point for corporate action on nature, it was instead being used as a “commonly cited tripping point”.

Multiple frameworks and toolkits have been created to help guide corporate action on nature, such as the one by the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures.

However, Pollination said the cumulative impact of all these frameworks had created a sense of “complexity and confusion”.

“Corporate leaders we speak to indicate they are hungry for simple, practical guidance about how to get started with nature response and how to build capability through doing and learning rather than immersing their teams in data,” Keddie said.

The guide urged companies to begin taking this first step now, saying the costs to mitigate risks and to act on restoration efforts would only likely increase the longer companies wait, and natural systems are likely to become more degraded over time, further limiting resilience.

By Mark Tilly – mark@carbon-pulse.com

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