Shaping nature outcomes in corporate settings

Abstract

Transnational companies have substantive impacts on nature: a hallmark of living in the Anthropocene. Understanding these impacts through company provision of information is a precursor to holding them accountable for nature outcomes. The effect of increasing disclosures (of varying quality) is predicated on ‘information governance’, an approach that uses disclosure requirements to drive company behaviour. However, its efficacy is not guaranteed. We argue that three conditions are required before disclosures have the possibility to shape nature outcomes, namely: (1) radical traceability that links company actions to outcomes in particular settings; (2) developing organizational routines, tools and approaches that translate strategic intent to on-the-ground behaviour; and (3) mobilizing and aligning financial actors with corporate nature ambitions. While disclosure is key to each of these conditions, its limits must be taken into account and it must be nested in governance approaches that shape action, not just reporting. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bringing nature into decision-making’.

Bringing nature into decision-making

“…Bebbington et al. [ 3 ] explore how such corporations attempt to take nature into account in their decision-making. They identify three critical success factors that need to be satisfied: a robust way to link local nature outcomes with company activities, translation of company strategic intentions with respect to nature into operational routines that inform actions on the ground, and financial actors creating the right incentives in support of company decision-making.…”