Healthcare company Novo Nordisk is among 14 companies that this week disclosed science-based pledges or projects that address nature-related environmental concerns such as biodiversity, freshwater quality or ocean protections.
Novo Nordisk’s new commitment, announced Sept. 15, calls for the company to source commodities such as wheat, corn, soy, cattle, sugar beets and wood from locations that are “conversion-free” — meaning natural habitat wasn’t destroyed for the sake of new production.
Close to three dozen companies have had some aspect of their nature strategy validated using methodologies developed by the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), which encourages businesses to adopt — and disclose publicly — formal targets for protecting natural habitats, freshwater and oceans. Not all of the companies have published information about those targets, although all have been independently validated.
The SBTN framework was introduced and piloted three years ago by 17 companies including GSK, Holcim and Kering, which went on to make official pledges. Revisions to the recommendations for freshwater and land commitments are pending; an announcement about version 2.0 of the methodology is planned for Oct. 13. SBTN’s guidelines for oceans are newer, so they won’t be updated in the next wave.
“That was a function of the community being more advanced on the first two realms,” said SBTN CEO Erin Billman. “We have been catching up in terms of foundational content.”
UK supermarket chain Waitrose, which is owned by John Lewis Partnership, is among the first companies with ocean-related commitments. Its plans include decisions to stop sourcing Moroccan sardines and Atlantic mackerel from certain regions and an initiative to restore mangroves in Honduras.
Europe leads early adopters
The vast majority of companies that have made commitments based on SBTN guidelines are from Europe. Seatopia, a small seafood retailer that sells direct to consumers, is the first U.S. company to publicly commit to SBTN as part of the latest disclosures.
SBTN also added its first two companies from Japan, beer maker Kirin Holdings and construction and real estate firm Daiwa House Industry.
“SBTN helps us speed up decision-making and discussion,” said Hiroaki Takaoka, senior executive officer for corporate strategy at Kirin. “Instead of discussions about whether or not we should care about nature, the discussion now moves on to which regions, which parts of the supply chain, and which sites are most important for our business.”
Many companies that have set nature-based targets won attention internally by linking them to future availability of raw materials, rising production costs and more resilient supply chain strategies, according to an SBTN analysis of early adopters published Sept. 15.
H&M, for example, used the SBTN guidelines to evolve broad biodiversity promises into a more specific set of measurable commitments related to forests and land conversion along with a transition plan to make it happen. It’s now prioritizing specific landscapes and materials, including cotton and wool. That shift transformed conversations between H&M’s sustainability team and its board.
“I am encouraged that companies are seeing it as a management tool,” Billman said.
