One in every of WHC’s genuine strengths as a company is our means to deploy nearly 4 many years 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, centered on what’s doable over what’s ultimate.
Prior to now yr, WHC has deployed this pragmatism to assist a wide range of firms lower by means of the noise of the company nature panorama the place recommendation is ample, however readability — and typically honesty — is briefly provide. Suggestions from WHC’s membership has proven that confusion reigns in terms of firms figuring out the information from the gross sales fiction.
Over the previous yr of working with our members and others, 4 fascinating 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 workout routines for a number of firms within the extractive, manufacturing and power sectors. The consulting crew assessed firms’ revealed actions, commitments, disclosures and reporting in opposition to 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 go away an organization centered on motion over reporting at a drawback in opposition to its friends.
- The present panorama of experiences, assessments and indices doesn’t present good areas to seize the truth on the bottom — and if it does, these expectations don’t take context into consideration. For example: An organization will get dinged for not having a deforestation coverage even when geospatial evaluation of its operations exhibits no proximity to core forests. An identical firm in the identical sector will price increased 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 employees 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 e-book Chicken by Chicken with an anecdote about her brother who, when he was 10 years previous, had left to the final minute a faculty report he wanted to write down on birds. As he sat tearfully on the desk together with his reference books, notebooks and pencils unfold out in entrance of him, panicked by the mammoth job forward, his father sat beside him and stated, “Chicken by chicken, buddy. Simply take it chicken by chicken.”
Many sustainability professionals will empathize with the state of affairs of a clean sheet of paper and a mammoth job forward.
We discovered that:
- A “bird-by-bird” strategy works simply as nicely for participating in new frameworks, just like the Taskforce on Nature-related Monetary Disclosures (TNFD) and Science Primarily based Tagrets Community (SBTN), because it does for college experiences. Whereas this discovering seems like an apparent one, we discovered that firms wrestle with the place and the best way to begin. The exhortation “simply begin someplace” does probably not 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 offered internally by means of already collected information and externally by means of present instruments and guidances.
The consulting crew at WHC developed a TNFD readiness evaluation software that we deployed with a number of firms at completely 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 set 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 aren’t but resourced adequately to answer the circulate 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 obtainable.
- Consideration to company tradition and operational context are sometimes lacking from the “one-size-fits-all” shows, 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 obtainable power to behave in the fitting course. Saying no is about understanding the distinction between what have to be completed, what ought to be completed and what could possibly be completed, 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 aren’t a prerequisite to restoring and recovering ecosystems and the planet’s wealthy biodiversity. Indicators received’t make us nature constructive by 2030. However firms want information to grasp impression, 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 accumulating information on nature-related subjects for so long as such laws have been in place, however they’re leery about sharing this information for causes exterior of compliance. Working with an power firm final yr, WHC consultants discovered an entire lack of belief between sustainability and compliance workplaces, which created difficulties in accumulating information for ESG functions.
EHS professionals fear about misuse of information 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 top 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 power to say “no”
- Higher resourced nature groups in firms
- Inner bridge-building to permit for higher flows of information.
As 2024 progresses, we sit up for persevering with to implement these classes as we assist our company members in reaching wins for nature.