Certainly one of WHC’s genuine strengths as a corporation is our potential to deploy nearly 4 a long time of expertise working on the intersection of enterprise and nature to grasp the real-world challenges and choices for supporting firms on their nature-positive journeys. We’ve at all times had a bias for motion, and we’ve at all times been pragmatic, targeted on what’s attainable over what’s very best.  

Prior to now yr, WHC has deployed this pragmatism to assist quite a lot of firms minimize via the noise of the company nature panorama the place recommendation is considerable, however readability — and generally honesty — is in brief provide. Suggestions from WHC’s membership has proven that confusion reigns in relation to firms figuring out the details from the gross sales fiction. 

Over the previous yr of working with our members and others, 4 attention-grabbing themes have emerged that proceed to tell WHC’s efforts in 2024 and past: 

Benchmarking Is a Clarifying Agent 

In 2023, WHC carried out biodiversity benchmarking workouts for a number of firms within the extractive, manufacturing and vitality sectors. The consulting workforce assessed firms’ printed actions, commitments, disclosures and reporting towards a bunch of peer firms and positioned the outcomes on a spectrum from laggard to chief.   

We discovered that: 

• There’s a clear distinction between the businesses that do and the businesses that inform, and that distinction can depart an organization targeted on motion over reporting at a drawback towards its friends. 
• The present panorama of experiences, assessments and indices doesn’t present good areas to seize the fact on the bottom — and if it does, these expectations don’t take context into consideration. For instance: An organization will get dinged for not having a deforestation coverage even when geospatial evaluation of its operations reveals no proximity to core forests. An analogous firm in the identical sector will price larger for having the coverage, even whether it is moot. 

Firm tradition dictates whether or not ‘doing’ or ‘telling’ dominates sustainability work, and whether or not sustainability workplaces draw workers from communications or engineering disciplines likewise drives both a story or motion bias.  

Framework Readiness Is Important 

The creator Ann Lamott defined the title of her guide Chook by Chook with an anecdote about her brother who, when he was 10 years outdated, had left to the final minute a college report he wanted to put in writing on birds. As he sat tearfully on the desk along with his reference books, notebooks and pencils unfold out in entrance of him, panicked by the mammoth activity forward, his father sat beside him and stated, “Chook by hen, buddy. Simply take it hen by hen.”  

Many sustainability professionals will empathize with the state of affairs of a clean sheet of paper and a mammoth activity forward.  

We discovered that: 

• A “bird-by-bird” method works simply as properly for partaking in new frameworks, just like the Taskforce on Nature-related Monetary Disclosures (TNFD) and Science Based mostly Tagrets Community (SBTN), because it does for varsity experiences. Whereas this discovering seems like an apparent one, we realized that firms wrestle with the place and begin. The exhortation “simply begin someplace” does not likely assist. 
• Readiness assessments are key to supporting progress, as they permit firms to grasp particular necessities and understand that a lot of the knowledge is on the market internally via already collected information and externally via present instruments and guidances. 

The consulting workforce at WHC developed a TNFD readiness evaluation software that we deployed with a number of firms at totally different factors of their nature-positive journeys. In every case, the evaluation helped the corporate arrive at a place to begin that made sense for its operations.  

Saying No Can Be a Superpower 

We heard from many firms throughout the yr in regards to the firehose of content material from consultants urging them to undertake a collection of frameworks or align with sure initiatives. This sends complicated and overwhelming messages to nascent nature workplaces and, in some instances, supplies inaccurate and deceptive messages that reek of bandwagon-jumping. 

We discovered that: 

• Firms should not but resourced adequately to answer the movement of knowledge or to type reality from fiction, which might result in a stasis if the time wanted to evaluate the veracity of messages will not be freely out there. 
• Consideration to company tradition and operational context are sometimes lacking from the “one-size-fits-all” displays, which renders these approaches particularly ineffective and wasteful of sustainability officers’ time.  

When WHC supplied a service to firms to assist them say no, it was met with a lot enthusiasm. Saying no will not be about refusing to behave for nature — it’s about directing the out there vitality to behave in the appropriate route. Saying no is about understanding the distinction between what should be performed, what ought to be performed and what could possibly be performed, in addition to understanding what’s pointless, ineffective or diversionary.  

The Lack of Information Is Not the Drawback 

Let’s first agree that information will not be wanted to behave for nature. Metrics should not a prerequisite to restoring and recovering ecosystems and the planet’s wealthy biodiversity. Indicators gained’t make us nature optimistic by 2030. However firms want information to grasp affect, guarantee commitments are credible and report progress. 

We discovered that: 

• A dialog must happen between environmental, social and governance (ESG) and environmental well being and security (EHS) workplaces. EHS professionals have been capturing and gathering information on nature-related matters for so long as such laws have been in place, however they’re leery about sharing this information for causes outdoors of compliance. Working with an vitality firm final yr, WHC consultants discovered an entire lack of belief between sustainability and compliance workplaces, which created difficulties in gathering information for ESG functions.  

EHS professionals fear about misuse of knowledge that might result in criticisms and accusations of greenwashing. Sustainability workplaces can allay these fears by opening conversations with their colleagues, together with them in discussions about information deployment. 

By the tip of the previous yr, we at WHC perceive greater than ever what we don’t want from initiatives or frameworks. We don’t want extra infographics about interoperability. We don’t want any extra passengers on the bandwagon.  

Right here’s what we do want:    

• Acknowledgement that the system prefers the talkers to the doers 
• Embarking upon the nature-positive journey in small steps 
• The flexibility to say “no”  
• Higher resourced nature groups in firms 
• Inside bridge-building to permit for higher flows of knowledge.  

As 2024 progresses, we sit up for persevering with to implement these classes as we help our company members in reaching wins for nature.  

Learn extra WHC blogs.