‘Get Nature Positive’: 95 businesses join forces in pledge to end nature loss
Raft of top brands sign up to the Get Nature Positive Campaign and pledge to reverse nature decline by 2030
Nearly 100 leading UK companies have now pledged to halt and reverse nature decline by 2030, after signing up to the Council for Sustainable Business’s (CSB) Get Nature Positive.
Burberry, GSK, ITV, Sainsbury’s, and Unilever are among 95 companies to have formally backed the campaign in response to a call to action from the CSB last month.
In October, the CSB, a group of business leaders appointed to advise Defra on how businesses can achieve the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, launched the ‘Get Nature Positive Campaign’ to rally business efforts to protect biodiversity. The 95 firms signed up to the campaign have committed to halting and reversing nature decline by 2030 in line with limiting global warming to 1.5C.
The update today coincides with COP26’s ‘Nature Day, which will see a number of the participating businesses unveil new environmental protection measures at a CSB Business Lunch Reception attended by the Environment Ministers Lord Goldsmith and Rebecca Pow, as well as leading global environmental campaigner and former US Vice President Al Gore.
“Every business in the UK, whether they know it or not, impacts nature and has a role to play in protecting it. No nature, no business – it’s that simple. There should not need to be a choice between business success and nature, the two should go hand in hand,” said Liv Garfield, CEO of the CSB.
“95 UK businesses backing Get Nature Positive is truly phenomenal. This level of support allows us to begin our journey of making a difference and helping the UK become a greener, more resilient country. Whether it’s businesses planting trees, saving water, helping to restore peatland or improving rivers, the UK are now global leaders in protecting nature for generations and tackling challenges from climate change, biodiversity and nature loss head on.”
OVO Energy is among the companies to announce new commitments at today’s event, pledging to plant one million trees in the UK within the next year. Severn Trent also stepped up its nature restoration activities and announced plans to restore over 2,000 acres of peatland across England and Wales over the next four years.
Pledges were also made by five leading UK supermarkets to slash their nature impacts, as they signed the WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment for Nature, while Burberry announced a new biodiversity strategy, including commitments to be ‘climate positive’ by 2040 and ensure all of its materials are 100 per cent traceable by 2025.
Other commitments were made by 30 global food and agriculture businesses who pledged to boost the sustainability and nature positive impact of their operations as part of the G7 Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative, which is set to be launched in December.
Commenting on today’s news, Environment Secretary George Eustice said: “The UK government is committed to putting nature on the road to recovery – it is essential if we are to implement the Paris agreement and tackle climate change. However, transforming our relationship with nature will require global cooperation across the entire commodity supply chain.
“The commitment from business today gives me further encouragement that we can overcome this challenge together to reverse the decline of nature by 2030.”
