Global investor initiative Nature Action 100 has begun engagement with 100 companies worth more than $9trn in market capital, calling on them to meet six expectations related to protecting nature.
The initiative, which launched at COP15 last year, comprises 190 institutional investors representing $23.6trn in assets under management or advice. Signatories include AXA Investment Managers, Storebrand Asset Management and Robeco.
It has now sent letters to 100 companies requesting that they publicly commit to minimizing and restoring nature loss along their chains of operation; assess and publicly disclose nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities; set and disclose targets, and develop a plan on how to achieve them; establish board oversight of this process; and engage with a variety of stakeholders.
“Given the magnitude of the challenge and the potential impact to your company, we believe a sense of urgency is also required,” the letter said.
The 100 companies, which include Alibaba, Glencore, McDonald’s, Kroger and Unilever, were selected based on their market capitalization within the key sectors and an analysis by the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation of companies with the highest impacts on nature.
Liudmila Strakodonskaya, ESG analyst at AXA Investment Managers, said: “All companies in the list have been identified as potentially the most impactful and representative of their respective sectors based on the best current data and knowledge provided by the partner organizations.”
Investors taking part will have to supply regular updates on their engagements.
“We now have all the ingredients to accelerate the performance of companies in terms of measuring, managing and mitigating their contribution to biodiversity loss,” said Peter van der Werf, head of engagement at Robeco.
“The challenge to bend the curve of nature loss can only be taken head on when investors, corporations, governments and civil society collaborate to set targets to protect biodiversity and engagement from investors in that process will be important to drive change.”