The World Benchmarking Alliance's (WBA) Nature Collective Impact Coalition (CIC) has been building momentum over the last few months and is now made up of a diverse founding group of six investors and fifteen civil society organizations. The Nature CIC seeks to get companies to urgently assess and disclose their nature-related risks, dependencies and impacts, using the Nature Benchmark to track progress. In mid-May the founding group launched its first Call to Action, sending a signal to companies and policymakers during the important pre-COP meetings in Nairobi and then in June, at WBA’s Annual Assembly in Bangkok,  new CIC action was announced, which is the opening of an Investor Statement. We are now calling on investors to sign this statement to signal that high impact companies urgently need to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on nature. 

Since WBA launched its first Nature Benchmark in 2022, the Biodiversity Plan (formerly the Global Biodiversity Framework) was agreed, which includes Target 15 focusing on the responsibility of the private sector. There are now also a range of nature-focused standards and frameworks, such as the TNFD, GRI Biodiversity Standard, the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), and the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). All of these align on the need for companies to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies (the focus topic of the WBA's Nature CIC). However, looking at on WBA's findings on company performance, we now need to mobilise and focus on getting measurable improvement on this catalytic topic amongst the companies that matter most. We are therefore inviting investors to sign this statement as this will send a strong signal to high-impact companies. The statement (attached) is open for sign-up until Thursday 1 August and the link to the sign-up form can be found below. After filling in the form, you will be asked to send a copy of your institution's logo, which will be added to statement ahead of publication of the Investor Statement in September. Alongside this, WBA is working with CIC members to plan an impactful engagement approach for COP 16 in Colombia. 

Sign-up Form to the Investor Statement

By signing the statement, you are not committing to join the WBA Alliance or the Nature CIC, but if you are interested in doing so you are welcome to. Linked to this, as a coalition, we have also identified an initial list of thirty high priority companies (none of which are part of Nature Action 100 Corporate Engagement) and we are now building a well-resourced engagement plan to engage with these companies. This will be informed by WBA’s 3 years of company assessments and significant expertise from CIC members. We are therefore also inviting investors who are interested to do so, to join this collective investor-company engagement, please also find the option to signal interest in this in the sign-up form above.

If you have any questions regarding the statement or the Nature CIC, you can reach out to Melis Ford (Engagement Lead, Nature) m.ford@worldbenchmarkingalliance.org for more information.