🔎 What’s going on?
Earlier this month, the luxury brand Kering published its 2020 Biodiversity strategy and set new targets.
🌳 🐝 Cool, tell me more!
Working closely with the Science Based Targets Network (SBT), the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership (CISL) and multiple other partners Kering has developed a robust Biodiversity strategy. It’s worth noting that this strategy is pioneering at a time when international Biodiversity targets have still not yet been set yet.
Their overall commitment is to have a ‘Net-Positive Impact (NPI) on biodiversity’ by 2025. That means that as a business, their presence in a region ultimately has a bigger positive impact on biodiversity than if they weren’t operating in that region. In order to achieve that commitment, they have set themselves 2 targets:
- By 2025, they will regenerate 1 million hectares of farms and rangelands within their supply chain. They will do this through the newly set up EUR 5 million Kering for Nature Fund across key materials within their supply chain: leather, cotton, cashmere and wool.
- Additionally, by 2025, they will also protect 1 million hectares of “critical, irreplaceable habitat” outside of their supply chain. Working with UN REDD+ and other programs where the focus is on achieving biodiversity protection, carbon sequestration and livelihood improvements.
Before setting these targets, it’s worth noting that Kering has made it a key priority to measure and report their environmental impact through their ‘Environmental Profit & Loss’ (EP&L) reports. Through this, they identified that their land footprint was 350,000 hectares.
Therefore, to have a truly ‘net positive impact on biodiversity’ - the 2 million hectares within their supply chain and outside their supply chain represents almost 6 times their total land footprint. That’s what it means to have an NPI on biodiversity.
❓ Why should I care?
Biodiversity, in a nutshell, is all the variety of life, across both plant and animal life. Almost every business touches upon biodiversity at some point in their supply chain, therefore preserving biodiversity is of utmost importance.
However, we know that biodiversity is declining rapidly worldwide. A recent global report by the UN found that around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades. Loss of biodiversity is also increasingly shown not just as an environmental issue but a “developmental, economic, security, social and moral issue as well”.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
Ideally, we should be achieving both the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the world will most likely miss reaching these targets based on our current path. Whilst an international biodiversity target is agreed upon, there are many things businesses can do in the meantime.
Adopting regenerative agriculture practices and introducing carbon farming are some of the steps in the right direction to restoring biodiversity.
👤 What can I do about it?
Start measuring your organisation’s biodiversity impact - no matter the size of your organisation. University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Development (CISL) has developed a simple framework to help businesses understand their dependencies and impact on Biodiversity. Check it out.
Related: Wild bison to return to the UK after 6000 years