A programme convening business leaders and policy makers is helping to identify the value to business of nature – and the step changes needed to build food security – as its co-Directors explain.
A programme convening business leaders and policy makers is helping to identify the value to business of nature – and the step changes needed to build food security – as its co-Directors explain.
Many natural resources, including water and soil, are already under great stress, and security of supply and access to materials are becoming a major risk for companies.
For many years businesses have been aware of the impact of their activities on the environment. But far less is understood about the value to business of the goods and services that nature provides. Yet, increasingly, this dependency is becoming a prominent issue, particularly for those in the food and agricultural sectors who rely directly on natural resources for their commodities and products.
Over the past year, a unique project – the Cambridge Natural Capital Programme at the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL) – has developed innovative and practical recommendations for the corporate sector, helping to identify risks, opportunities and step changes in the face of growing pressures on the ecosystems and natural capital that underpin the global economy.
The programme is one of a number developed by CPSL over 20 years that draw on the leading research and networks of the University to help business leaders address the critical global challenges they face today.
Risks and opportunities
Launched in April 2010, the cross-sector programme convenes 20 companies with global reach, including ASDA Wal-Mart, Cargill, Kraft Foods, Nestlé, Olam International and Unilever, who recognise the benefits of working collaboratively and learning from the experience of others.
An initial food security roundtable with businesses leaders clarified where CPSL could add value, and four ‘collaboratories’ have been created with the intention of developing practical actions and informing public policy.
One area that requires a practical solution is how to ‘re-tune’ retail and manufacturing supply chains to share one planet’s worth of resources, and how to include local communities in the equation. Many natural resources, including water and soil, are already under great stress, and security of supply and access to materials are becoming a major risk for companies.
Another area under investigation is the evolving landscape of risk and opportunity for business generated by the intensifying pressures on ecosystem services and natural capital. Many of the companies brought together by the programme realise that such risks and opportunities are poorly understood at a business level. The tools they have developed in the collaboratories have helped them devise better strategies and anticipate likely policy responses by government to these risks.
On the other hand, investors are assessing risks and opportunities operating within an economic model that does not take account of the natural limits to growth. The programme is examining how to accelerate the mainstreaming of natural capital into investment decisions as well as into the creation of new investment opportunities so that we live off the ‘natural interest’ rather than the natural capital of our resource base.
Outcomes of these business collaboratories will feed into international policy processes, including Rio +20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development next year in Brazil.
Frameworks for food security
At the heart of ecosystem and natural capital decline are constraints to food security – the ability of the current global food system to deliver sufficient food within the carrying capacity of the planet. Looking ahead, the programme will focus on helping business and policy makers to understand the system shifts needed to overcome these constraints.
Solutions lie in devising new business models that can provide nutritious, safe and affordable food to over nine billion people by 2050, using less land, fewer inputs, with less waste and a lower environmental impact, and in ways that are socially and economically sustainable. Essential to success will be supportive national and global policy frameworks.
The power of such a University-based programme is its ability to convene influential business leaders and policy makers and to offer unique collaborative research opportunities to tackle these complex problems and devise practical solutions.
For more information about CPSL’s Cambridge Natural Capital Programme, please contact its co-Directors, Martin Roberts (martin.roberts@cpsl.cam.ac.uk) and Margaret Adey (margaret.adey@cpsl.cam.ac.uk) at CPSL.
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