“Business in Nature”
The preservation of nature is an environmental and public health issue, but it is also an economic challenge that companies—especially those gathered within 2050NOW La Maison—are beginning to tackle. The frontrunners are now engaging in ‘business in nature’: with natural resources becoming scarcer and climate-related crises multiplying, companies have a clear incentive to act to safeguard their value chains, reduce financial risks, and ultimately ensure their own continuity. They also provide solutions, notably when they work on pollution remediation, water treatment, or offer low-carbon transportation.
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Going beyond climate: the key role of nature-based solutions
The study recommends an approach that goes beyond the climate alone, notably by relying on “nature-based solutions.” In a context where extreme weather events are expected to multiply, the irreplaceable role of nature—as a carbon sink or as a barrier against erosion, for example—must be rediscovered. The study notably examines the potential of regenerative agriculture and the challenges linked to soils, water and oceans.
Mobilizing stakeholders: an essential condition for success
Success depends on rigorous measurement of dependencies and impacts, but also on broad mobilization of local communities and Indigenous peoples, the first guardians of nature. Within companies, leaders, employees and customers all have a role to play. As for public authorities, they need both the active participation of citizens and independent scientific analysis to counter disinformation.
Regenerating nature: building sustainable prosperity
Finally, at a time when the fight against climate change seems to be slipping into the background, it is important to understand that resilience is holistic: focusing solely on geopolitical issues would be a mistake, as the destruction of the living world makes us profoundly vulnerable.
Regenerating nature means building our economy for the long term, relying on sustainable companies, a more resilient society and a form of prosperity that does not deplete life itself. Nature is humanity’s most precious capital. But humanity must remember that it is fully part of it.
Sylvie Goulard – Professor of Practice, SDA Bocconi
