Third update of our collaborative engagements overview
14 December 2023 – The Finance for Biodiversity Foundation and the EU Business & Biodiversity Platform have published the third update of the Collaborative Engagements Overview, which acts as an annex to the Guide on Engagement with Companies. Nine new biodiversity-related collaborative engagements have been added.
Guide and Overview
The Guide on Engagement with Companies and the accompanying Collaborative Engagements Overview were launched in April 2022. The guide contains a wealth of information for financial institutions on how to engage with companies on biodiversity topics. 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.
Update of the Overview
In this third update of the Collaborative Engagements Overview, the status (ongoing/completed) of all engagements was checked, and nine new engagements were added:
- Ceres, IIGCC, FfB Foundation, Planet Tracker: Nature Action 100
- PRI: Spring, a stewardship initiative on nature
- FAIRR: Seafood Traceability Engagement
- VBDO: Investors call for urgent action to reduce plastics from intensive users of plastic packaging
- FfB Foundation: Global Financial Institutions Statement to Governments on Deep Seabed Mining
- ShareAction: Investor engagement campaign on the Pesticides industry
- As You Sow: Asking automobile manufacturers to commit to not source minerals from the deep sea bed
- VBDO: The Investor Initiative on Responsible Nickel Supply Chains
- Sustainalytics: Biodiversity & Natural Capital Impact Program
The Collaborative Engagements Overview now includes information about 43 collective engagements and joint investor letters, of which 19 are currently ongoing. It thus points financial institutions to ongoing engagements that they can join, as well as directs them to information generated by past collaborative engagements.
Corporate engagement
Engaging with companies on biodiversity is one of the ways in which financial institutions can act to reverse nature loss. It is one of the five commitments in the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, and it has a dedicated working group under the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation. Given that the biodiversity footprint of financial institutions is largely caused by the companies they invest in, corporate engagement is key for reversing nature loss. It is encouraging to see that financial institutions are taking up this task collectively by developing new collaborative engagements on biodiversity.
Nature Action 100
The Finance for Biodiversity Foundation has supported the Launching Investor Group scoping Nature Action 100 and is now co-leading its Technical Advisory Group with Planet Tracker. As of 30 November 2023, more than 200 institutional investors – representing over $27 trillion in assets under management or advice – from around the world participate in the initiative.
Regular updates
By providing regular updates to the Collaborative Engagements Overview, the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation and the EU Business & Biodiversity Platform want to help financial institutions navigate the ever-changing landscape of collaborative biodiversity engagements. Feedback and input to be included in the next updates of this document can be sent to info@financeforbiodiversity.org.
Read the Collaborative Engagements Overview (Annex 3)
Read the Guide on Engagement with Companies