The Urgent Case for Nature: Why It Matters to Retail 

The long-term operation and sustainable growth of businesses across the globe is materially dependent on a stable natural world: this is the reality that underlies the foundational importance of nature and biodiversity to the retail industry. 

With sprawling national and global supply chains, retailers are tightly enmeshed in a web of dependencies on nature. From crop pollination to water purification and soil fertilisation, stable and biodiverse natural ecosystems support the basic production processes within every retailer’s value chain.  

There are several interconnecting factors, which demand retailer attention: 

  1. Food Security & Supply Chain Resilience: Failure to mitigate nature-related risks poses monumental challenges for retailers and their customers. From the prospect of price-hiking insecurity over food and other goods for consumers to the damaging consequences for businesses’ economic growth, the impact of nature degradation and biodiversity loss is felt across every corner of the retail industry. 
  2. Achieving Net Zero: The interrelated nature of climate change and biodiversity loss further reinforces the impact of nature on supply chains. Becoming nature-positive is instrumental to the achievement of net zero, due to the centrality of nature-based solutions in mitigating carbon emissions: the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb around half of all human emissions.  
  3. Financial Risk & Business Security: Over half of global GDP is considered moderately or highly dependent on nature, according to PwC analysis. Within the UK, a recent study from the University of Oxford estimates a 12% reduction in UK GDP by 2040 – larger than the hit to GDP from the global financial crisis or Covid-19 – without action to mitigate nature-related financial risks. As Natural England chair Tony Juniper pleads: “Nature isn’t different from growth – it’s at the heart of it, you cannot grow the economy if we don’t grow nature. Nature is our national wealth service.”  

For retailers, nature-positive action is critical to building long-term supply chain resilience and business security – and has the potential to create new market opportunities that put your business firmly ahead of others. 

Next Steps for Retailers at COP16 and Beyond 

Over the next two weeks, delegates will gather in Cali, Colombia for the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). At COP15, governments struck a historic deal to halt and reverse nature and biodiversity loss with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Two years on, scientists, Indigenous communities, business representatives and environment ministers from nearly 200 countries are meeting to discuss progress towards the targets and negotiate how they will be monitored, in this first stage of implementation. 

The international spotlight on nature degradation and biodiversity loss as a dual crisis alongside climate change has catalysed a surge of attention on nature and biodiversity in the regulatory space – and on retailers as forefront actors in accelerating nature-positive action globally.

The time for urgent, rapid and comprehensive business action on nature is now. COP16 is the first stage of implementation following the adoption of the GBF, and so offers a crucial opportunity for retailers to scale-up progress on nature-based reporting, disclosure, and action. It also offers the chance to engage with governments on upcoming policies and regulation. 

In light of recent shortcomings from the UK Government on nature, retailers should also anticipate renewed and additional policy commitments from government at COP16. We will be monitoring the impact of outcomes from COP16 on retailers, and you can read more on the nature-positive actions government need to take at COP16 and beyond here. 

For more information on the immediate actions retailers can take to address their nature and biodiversity impacts, and how COP16 could drive forward opportunities in these areas: 

More on BRC’s Plan for Nature: 

For retailers just embarking on the journey towards nature-positive action, the BRC Plan for Nature is a great way to get started. Our ongoing programme of events across 2024/25 aims to identify barriers to nature-positive action and engage with members and stakeholders to enable solutions that will catalyse retailer’s nature strategies. 

Our next event, BRC Nature Day on 28 November, represents an excellent opportunity to kickstart your work on nature. The event will map out where and how retailers should begin to incorporate nature and biodiversity into their strategy, including discussions on barriers, challenges, and potential solutions. You can register for this event here. 

For all other upcoming events on nature and biodiversity, please find our Plan for Nature programme for 2024/25 here. 

For any queries, please contact our policy lead Sophie De Salis.