The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) has updated its Nature Benchmark (August 2024), which uses company data and performance from 2022 to 2024 to assess how more than 800 major companies across 20 industries - including household products, apparel, mining, and food - are impacting nature and protecting and restoring ecosystems.
Human Level’s Take: Most companies are missing the bigger picture when it comes to their impacts and dependencies on nature. With only a handful assessing their nature impacts, and even fewer understanding how much they rely on ecosystems, businesses are flying blind. This lack of a holistic strategy puts them at risk of failing legal requirements, like the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (EU CSDDD), and missing out on vital opportunities to protect nature and drive sustainable change. To stay ahead, companies need to step up, adopt integrated approaches, and prioritise nature as a key element of their strategy—or risk being left behind.
Key points from the report:
- Nature blind spot: Most companies lack understanding of their impacts and dependencies on nature. Only 5% have assessed their impacts on nature and only 1% have looked at how they depend on nature. Companies that do assess this often cover only part of their operations or fail to share their findings, with marine ecosystems frequently overlooked. This lack of visibility hampers companies' ability to strategically manage their risks, prioritise actions, and meet legal expectations like the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) on nature. The WBA recommends that companies adopt a risk management and disclosure framework such as the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
- Indigenous Peoples’ rights and water stewardship overlooked: Less than 13% of companies commit to respecting Indigenous Peoples' rights, despite their critical role in protecting ecosystems. Furthermore, most companies fail to address their impact on water quality. Even though 29% report water use reductions, only 15% disclose discharged pollutants metrics and less than 4% have set targets to reduce them. The WBA recommends that companies commit to obtaining Free, Prior and Informed Consent from Indigenous Peoples and local communities when carrying out projects that could affect their rights, and use frameworks like the Ceres Corporate Expectations for Valuing Water and SBTN Freshwater Targets for guidance on better water stewardship.
- Leadership and data gaps: While 66% of companies assign sustainability oversight to their board, only 2% have members with relevant expertise in areas like biodiversity or climate. In addition, only 19% provide quantitative evidence of plastic reduction and just 7% have quantitative, time-bound targets to reduce plastic use and waste. The WBA recommends that companies develop a sustainability strategy that covers nature, supported by concrete high-level responsibility and accountability at the leadership level.
