330 businesses globally call on governments to require release of biodiversity data

Hundreds of businesses around the world made an unusual request Wednesday, asking governments to force them to disclose how their operations impact biodiversity.

Three hundred and thirty businesses from 52 countries signed the “COP15 Business Statement for Mandatory Assessment and Disclosure in advance of the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, which will be held from Dec. 7 to 19 in Montreal.

COP15 is shorthand for the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, or CBD, which was ratified by 196 countries. At COP15, governments will negotiate new targets through 2040 to protect biodiversity for this decade.

Historically, the release of biodiversity data has been voluntary, but the businesses argue mandatory reporting would give them the information they need to meet targets.

“Assessment and disclosure are an essential first step to generate action, but it will only have an impact if it is made mandatory,” the statement reads. “At COP15 in Montreal, we call on you to adopt, in Target 15, mandatory requirements for large and transnational businesses and financial institutions to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity, by 2030.

Signatories of the statement have combined revenues of $1.5 trillion, and include Canadian companies such as Montreal-based engineering firm Snc-lavalin Group Inc. and Toronto-based cement company Lafarge Canada Inc. Other major international signatories include France's BNP Paribas SA, Netherland's Ikea, operated by Inkga Group, and Sweden's H&M Hennes & Mauritz Inc.

Hentie Dirker, chief ESG and integrity officer at Snc-lavalin, said the lack of transparency around biodiversity means the business community doesn't have the data it needs to act.

“Globally there is not enough progress being made,” he said. “Taking this step to assess and disclose industry's impact on nature will enable the business community to have a much better understanding of the scale of the issue — that means we can take the right action.”

The business community depends on the natural environment, said Robert Cumming, head of sustainability and public affairs at Lafarge Canada. “The story is very simple: If we continue on this trajectory, there will be no profitable businesses in 30 years' time,” he said. “Nature loss is eating away at our economy.”

Cumming said in a recent article published on Linkedin that companies can use transparency as a tool to avoid “greenwashing,” which is when businesses purport to be environmentally friendly for marketing purposes but do not actually make meaningful sustainability efforts. Transparency requires businesses to act, he said.

The CBD aims to conserve biological diversity, ensure the sustainable use of nature, and the sharing of benefits from “genetic material” from living organisms that could prove useful to humans. But since it came into effect in 1993, biodiversity loss has only continued. Today, over 41,000 animals are threatened by extinction and natural ecosystems have declined by 47 per cent on average.