Clear Skies Joins Nature Action 100 and Contributes to Setting Investor Expectations for Biodiversity
Clear Skies Investment Management Inc. (Clear Skies) is proud to announce its participation in Nature Action 100, a global investor initiative aimed at driving corporate action in reversing nature and biodiversity loss by 2030. Clear Skies has also pledged its commitment to the Investor Expectations for Companies, which outline key actions across six critical focus areas: Ambition, Assessment, Targets, Implementation, Governance, and Engagement.
Nature Action 100 has identified eight key sectors deemed systemically important in reversing nature and biodiversity loss. These sectors include biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, chemicals (including agricultural chemicals), household and personal goods, consumer goods retail (including e-commerce and specialty retailers and distributors), food (ranging from meat and dairy producers to processed foods), food and beverage retail, forestry and paper (including forest management and pulp and paper products), and metals and mining. These sectors are known for their significant impacts on habitat loss, overexploitation of resources, and pollution of soil, water, and solid waste.
The Investor Expectations for Companies, which will be sent to a finalized list of focus companies later this year, serve as a starting point for corporate engagement within the Nature Action 100 initiative. These expectations encompass the following areas:
1. Ambition: Companies are expected to publicly commit to minimizing contributions to key drivers of nature loss and to conserving and restoring ecosystems at the operational level and throughout value chains by 2030.
2. Assessment: Firms must assess and publicly disclose nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities at the operational level and throughout value chains.
3. Targets: Companies are encouraged to set time-bound, context-specific, science-based targets informed by risk assessments on nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities. They should also disclose annual progress against these targets.
4. Implementation: A company-wide plan to achieve targets should be developed, prioritizing rights-based approaches and collaboration with Indigenous Peoples and local communities when they are affected. Annual progress against the plan should be disclosed.
5. Governance: Establishing Board oversight and disclosing management’s role in assessing and managing nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities are crucial elements of governance expectations.
6. Engagement: Companies are expected to engage with external parties, including actors throughout value chains, trade associations, policy makers, and other stakeholders to create an enabling environment for implementing the plan and achieving targets.
Biodiversity loss is recognized as the third most severe threat humanity faces by the World Economic Forum. Investors and companies are pivotal in addressing this critical challenge. With over half of the world’s GDP reliant on nature and its services, depleting natural capital poses significant operational, regulatory, litigation, and reputational risks for investors and businesses alike, with negative economic repercussions globally. This includes the risk of billions of global crop outputs annually from pollinator loss and the stranding of tens of billions of dollars in assets if companies continue to produce deforestation-linked commodities over the next 5 to 10 years.
Clear Skies acknowledges the urgency and importance of addressing these critical issues and is committed to working within the Nature Action 100 framework to drive positive change in these key sectors.
For more information, please visit Clear Skies Investment Management and Nature Action 100.
