Biodiversity loss is a global systemic risk. At the United Nations Biodiversity Conference
in 2022, 190 countries agreed to take steps to prevent biodiversity and nature loss. The resulting
Global Biodiversity Framework calls on businesses to assess and disclose biodiversity
dependencies, risks, impacts and opportunities, and to reduce negative impacts.
As a company in the food and beverage sector, Bloomin’ Brands is highly vulnerable to naturerelated risks. It depends on an uninterrupted supply of fresh ingredients to stock its restaurants. It
has significant impacts through sourcing large volumes of commodities that have high carbon
footprints and are leading drivers of global deforestation, including palm oil, soy, and beef.
Failure to comprehensively assess its natural capital dependencies and ultimately mitigate their
impacts on the company exposes Bloomin’ Brands to unnecessary risks:
 Systemic risk: More than half of the world’s GDP is dependent on nature’s services1
. The
World Bank estimates that the collapse of ecosystem services could result in a $2.7 trillion
reduction of GDP as early as 20302
.
 Financial risk: An increasing number of asset managers incorporate nature-related risks
and impacts into investment decision-making. Financial institutions with US $8.7 trillion in
AUM have committed to eliminate agricultural-commodity-driven deforestation from their
portfolios by 20253
.
 Regulatory risk: In October 2024, 27 pension funds with AUM of $2.5 trillion urged
governments to institute mandatory nature disclosures for companies.4
Over 500
companies have already committed to biodiversity assessment and disclosure using the
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) framework, released in January.
The International Sustainability Standards Board is reviewing TNFD as it considers
developing natured-based disclosures5
. Meanwhile, in Europe, the CSRD is scheduled to
include mandatory reporting of biodiversity and ecosystem impacts and risks under ESRS
4
6
.
Seventy-six percent of Bloomin’ Brands shareholders urged the company to set comprehensive
emissions reduction targets while adopting a no-deforestation policy in 2021.7
In 2024, Bloomin’
Brands was among the companies targeted by financial institutions with $21 trillion AUM for failure
to disclose climate, forest, and water impacts through CDP.8
While Bloomin’ Brands has recently established goals to disclose and mitigate portions of its
emissions and forest-impact value chains, it lags significantly behind its peers in terms of scope,
ambition, and timeframe.
Without a comprehensive assessment of its biodiversity impacts, dependencies, risks, and
opportunities, Bloomin’ Brands may subject itself to unnecessary systemic, regulatory, and
financial risk.