We were honoured to take part in a panel on “Biodiversity and Regeneration” at Reset Connect, the signature event for London Climate Action Week.

GIST Impact’s SVP, Research & Innovation, Anupam Ravi took the stage along with host Peter Brotherton (Natural England) and fellow panelists Adele Cheli (GSK), Danielle Mulder (BBC), Rebekah Braswell (Land Life), and Marion Atieno Osieyo (WWF) to discuss the risks associated with biodiversity loss, benefits to business of becoming nature-positive, and what investors and businesses can do to support nature recovery.

See below for a few key highlights from the conversation. 

On the scale of the problem:

• “All businesses depend on nature – it’s critical that we understand our impacts and dependencies on nature so we can all thrive.” Adele Cheli
• “We behave as if nature is infinite – but we’re drawing down (on these resources) at an alarming rate… Over half of global GDP is dependent on nature…If we don’t maintain our environmental infrastructure, then we can’t expect to continue to use nature’s provisioning services.” Anupam Ravi
• “We’re in this situation because we’ve mismanaged nature… We won’t be in business unless we get this right.” Danielle Mulder
• “There’s no doubt that biodiversity loss is a risk to a company’s bottom line… but there are also opportunities to innovate, build new products, capture new markets, and address shifting consumer preferences.” Anupam Ravi

On potential solutions:

• “Similar to carbon, let’s go really hard on mitigation, figure out where the hotspots are, where we have strong interfaces with nature, and then focus on reducing those impacts.” Danielle Mulder
• “We have seen where disclosure works – for example, in the utilities sector in Europe, companies have been able to decouple growth from their environmental footprint.“ Anupam Ravi

On where the focus should be now:

• “We’re at a critical moment – there is more momentum towards halting and reversing biodiversity loss since Montreal (COP15). But we need the market to see all of this (climate, biodiversity) holistically…these things are incredibly intertwined, and regulation and credit schemes need to respond accordingly.”  Rebekah Braswell
• “It’s important that we change the way performance is measured –  we need to look at this from a multidimensional lens (beyond just financial indicators). If we don’t apply this lens, it will be difficult to fully address the problem.” Anupam Ravi
• “It’s critical we adopt a human rights-based approach, making sure the (nature-positive) work doesn’t violate the rights of communities and stakeholders.” Marion Atieno Osieyo

Listen to the recorded panel session here: