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Guide on engagement with companies

The Guide on engagement with companies was launched in a webinar on April 12th. It was created by members of the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation and the Finance@Biodiversity Community, and provides information and support for financial institutions on how to engage with companies on biodiversity topics.

The Why, What and How of biodiversity engagement

The guide offers guidance, information, and references related to several dimensions of biodiversity engagement. It covers questions such as: ‘How should one scope an engagement on biodiversity?’; ‘What sectors, value chains, or companies should one engage with?’; ‘What objectives and targets should be set?’; and ‘What topics have and have not been covered by collaborative engagements so far?’. It is written based on practitioner experience and enriched with case studies from financial institutions.

Overview of collaborative engagements on biodiversity

Annex 3 to the guide, the Collaborative Engagements Overview, provides a comprehensive overview of ongoing and past biodiversity-related collaborative engagements, including both collective engagements and joint investor letters. This overview points financial institutions to ongoing engagements that they can join, as well as directs them to information generated by past collaborative engagements. It was last updated in December 2023. By providing regular updates, the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation wants to help financial institutions to navigate the ever-changing landscape of collaborative biodiversity engagements.

Voting as a tool for biodiversity engagement

Alongside engagement, voting can be used as a tool to influence companies’ attention to biodiversity and to support its integration into corporate practices. Voting can also be used as an escalation tactic if biodiversity engagement is not successful enough. The final chapter of the guide outlines how investors can address biodiversity in voting practices and voting-related activities and suggests how to integrate it into standard meeting agenda items or shareholder proposals on nature.

Engagement with companies as part of the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge

Financial institutions have an impact on global biodiversity levels largely through the companies they finance or invest in. Engaging with these companies is an important strategy to reverse biodiversity loss. This is why ‘engaging with companies’ is one of the five commitments outlined in the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. This new guide serves as an annex to the Engaging with companies section of the Pledge’s main Guidance Document. It was co-authored by six active members of the FfB Foundation and F@B Community that is part of the EU Business@Biodiversity Platform.

Materials from the webinar in which the Guide was launched:

Read more about the EU Finance@Biodiversity Community

Read more about the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge

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