In an era where environmental stewardship and sustainability are becoming central to corporate strategies, the concept of nature positivity is gaining traction. With growing scrutiny and evolving stakeholder and regulatory expectations, leaders are looking to incorporate nature and biodiversity considerations into their strategic planning.
Despite strong momentum in this area, many organizations struggle to translate strategy into action. Building a compelling business case for nature positivity and securing funding remain significant challenges. While most firms have set internal nature and biodiversity targets, accountability is lacking—fewer than one in ten have publicly disclosed these goals, often due to concerns about the maturity and credibility of their strategies. Additionally, many leaders grapple with the absence of industry standards and the internal expertise needed to drive meaningful progress.
Trinity commissioned independent research firm Verdantix to conduct a study of executives from the real estate, infrastructure, mining, renewables, utilities, and liquid natural gas (LNG) sectors in the U.S. and Canada to uncover trends in how organizations are addressing nature-related challenges within their operations. Our findings highlight several key challenges and identify avenues that can help ensure your nature-positive investments make an impact.
- Companies are increasingly aware of the importance of nature and biodiversity: With an estimated $44 trillion in economic value at risk due to nature-related business dependencies, as highlighted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), nature and biodiversity are critical for organizations reliant on natural resources and ecosystem services. As these businesses navigate growing scrutiny over their operational impact on biodiversity, integrating sustainable practices is no longer optional—it’s essential for long-term resilience and success.
To mitigate nature-related risks, business leaders are looking to incorporate nature and biodiversity considerations into their strategic planning. Regulatory and policy developments are major drivers of this trend, with 83% of the leaders surveyed seeing this as either the “most significant” or a “very significant” driver in influencing their firm’s commitment to nature and biodiversity. Despite these regulatory pressures, the survey results indicate a risk management gap, with nature and biodiversity strategies less mature than ESG and sustainability strategies. While 72% of organizations report having comprehensive ESG strategies, only 23% have equivalent strategies for nature and biodiversity.
At the same time, it has become harder than ever to predict environmental events—both imminent and distant. Organizations can no longer rely on historical evidence to provide foresight into the future. Because of this, it is no surprise that 81% of organizations are committed to understanding the impacts of extreme weather events on their operations. Water stewardship and biodiversity conservation are also high on the corporate agenda, driven by sustainability goals, stakeholder expectations, and long-term risk management.
- Firms are evolving their nature and biodiversity strategies to keep pace with stakeholder and regulatory expectations: Our research highlights the need for firms to integrate nature-related impacts and risks into their broader enterprise risk management (ERM) frameworks—and to ensure that they regularly review and update them. Over the next three years, many organizations plan to maintain or modestly increase investments in key nature-related areas. 70% have established internal nature and biodiversity targets, with 68% of large organizations (those with over $1 billion in annual revenue) leading this charge. While 36% of these targets are aligned to nature-based targets from the Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN), just 8% of firms have publicly disclosed these targets, reflecting concerns about the maturity and credibility of their strategies.
Several challenges are getting in the way of firms’ abilities to implement their nature and biodiversity strategies. Chief among them is the lack of industry standards and guidelines, which was cited by 52% of respondents as the primary obstacle. The complexity of biodiversity issues is another key challenge, with 52% of organizations citing a lack of internal expertise as a major barrier to strategy implementation. This gap in expertise is felt most acutely by medium-sized organizations (those with annual revenues between $500 million and $1 billion), 80% of which report it as a top challenge. To bridge these knowledge gaps, many firms are turning to third-party consulting services for help with all environmental impact assessments (51% of respondents, with an additional 31% using external partners for most such projects).
- Emerging disclosure requirements add to the state and national reporting burden: An increasingly complex regulatory landscape in the U.S. and Canada is shaping firms’ biodiversity and nature strategies. These regulations mandate comprehensive environmental measures, including pollution control, habitat conservation, and sustainable resource management, while international disclosure frameworks like those of the CDP, GRI’s Biodiversity standard, and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) add to organizations’ reporting burden. Some firms face even stricter regulatory requirements, particularly those operating in ecologically sensitive areas. For example, mining operations must secure operating licenses and permits while demonstrating robust environmental stewardship through high-quality monitoring and remediation plans.
Satisfying the data needs of environmental regulations and non-regulated nature and biodiversity disclosure standards will require firms to establish an enterprise-wide ESG information architecture to produce consistent, investor-grade data. About 40% of organizations surveyed currently use software to collect, analyze, and disclose nature and biodiversity data, with three-quarters of firms using ESG and sustainability software for regulatory compliance for these purposes. A robust digital strategy paired with these tools can significantly improve a firm’s preparedness for upcoming regulatory and disclosure requirements.
The time to lay the groundwork for a more nature-positive tomorrow is now. The path forward is littered with complexity; navigating it smoothly will require deep industry expertise and technical knowledge as well as an understanding of the natural and regulatory landscape. By bringing an advisory partner into the process, you can develop and implement strategies that ensure regulatory compliance today and prepare you for tomorrow.
