It’s International Day of Forests and this year’s theme —Forest Restoration: A path to recovery and well-being — couldn’t be timelier.
The importance of forests to biodiversity, ecosystem services, food systems, human health, local economies and tackling climate change can’t be overstated. The events of the past 12 months have provided evidence of our inextricable link to nature and the dangers of upsetting this fine balance, as well as a wakeup call to what’s in store if we continue to hit the snooze button.
Yet during that same period, deforestation increased by more than 50%. At the same time, companies missed the mark on a major milestone on the road to eliminating deforestation from their supply chains by 2030 — halving deforestation by 2020.
Resources to help businesses tackle deforestation-related impacts to make progress on biodiversity and climate goals.
Deforestation accounts for 15% of global GHG emissions and makes up a significant portion of companies’ land-related impacts — on average, nearly 24% of company revenues depend on commodities linked to deforestation. We won’t be able to solve the growing climate and biodiversity crisis without a solution for deforestation. The sooner companies start on that journey, the more resilient they’ll become and will be better positioned to make meaningful progress on climate and biodiversity goals.
Want to learn more about how working with nature can help your team tackle its climate and biodiversity goals? Here are a few resources to get started:
INSIGHTS
> Natural Climate Solutions: How 4 global companies leverage nature to tackle the climate crisis
For companies in land-based industries, natural climate solutions — conservation, restoration and regenerative land management activities that draw carbon out of the atmosphere — are the most relevant and the most untapped reduction opportunities for corporate carbon strategies.
> When it comes to biodiversity, businesses are at a loss
Most sustainability professionals aren’t clear about what biodiversity loss means for business and how to tackle it. Here’s what you need to know.
METHODOLOGY + GUIDANCE
> Accounting for Natural Climate Solutions Guidance
Accounting for Natural Climate Solutions: Guidance for Measuring GHG Emissions from Land, Forests, and Soils across the Supply Chain delivers a robust methodology to embed land-related emissions in corporate and product footprints, which can be used for science-based climate target setting efforts. The Guidance’s supporting Annex document provides detailed information on the scope of the proposed methodology, including technical instructions, context, debated challenges and limitations as well as references.
TOOLS
geoFootprint powerfully combines data from satellite imagery with environmental metrics to visualize and simulate the environmental footprints of key commodity crops on an interactive world map. Understand what’s driving your footprint, including deforestation, and transform how you measure and manage crops’ impact on the planet.
WEBINARS
> Natural Climate Solutions: Tap into the opportunities
Using concrete project cases, experts demonstrate how leading companies are working collaboratively to deploy natural climate solutions that reduce climate impacts, assess strategic opportunities, mitigate risks and develop strong partnerships across their supply chains.
Hear from experts at Quantis, Cool Farm Tool, General Mills and WBCSD as we provide a peek at how geoFootprint helps you visualize and calculate agricultural supply chain impacts, how it complements the Cool Farm Tool to bridge the gap between farm-level assessment and supply chain strategies and how leading companies are using it across their value chain.
CASE STUDIES
> Barry Callebaut: A new methodology to account for land-use change in the cocoa supply chain
Quantis and Barry Callebaut worked in close partnership to develop an innovative carbon footprinting methodology to assess the impacts of land-use change and deforestation driven by cocoa farming. Designed specifically for the cocoa supply chain, this first of its kind methodology combines GPS data, satellite imagery and farm-level management data.
> Braskem: Catalyzing meaningful action on land-use change through supply chain collaboration
Braskem teamed up with Quantis to assess the land-use change (LUC) impact of its biopolyethylene (Green PE) from sugarcane ethanol. The results from the project provide a solid foundation for Braskem’s climate strategy, risk management, sustainable sourcing and communications.
