Assessing risk upstream may uncover opportunities to invest in community-led projects within the supply chain, or to collaborate with suppliers on business transformation initiatives. Looking downstream can identify opportunities for circularity or customer collaborations around business innovation.

Make it about innovation

Virtually all companies will need to take action to reverse their negative impacts on nature and mitigate business risks. Companies that are doing this successfully today make it about innovation. For example, a large consumer electronics company tasks its engineering team with an innovation challenge to develop a new device that has zero emissions or environmental impact, but they can't compromise the user experience or increase costs. Engineers love these types of difficult challenges, and employees find them meaningful and inspiring overall. Embracing environmental constraints uncovers new approaches, new solutions to meeting customer needs sustainably.

Consider the cost of inaction

Conducting a nature risk analysis should also reveal potential consequences of inaction. These insights and projected financial impacts should be incorporated into decision making for sustainability investments. Many companies only look at costs and benefits of taking action, but including the cost of inaction will yield a more accurate return on investment.

Experiment with all the tools at your disposal

There are numerous approaches to addressing each type of challenge, from implementing new processes, adopting new technologies, and transforming business models to engaging communities to restore ecosystems, employees to innovate, and value chain partners to reinvent. Inspiration and industry best practices can be found in Business for Nature's Sector Actions Towards a Nature-Positive Future and the TNFD Sector Guidance.