Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
How measuring nature at the DNA level unlocks financial growth
Katie Critchlow is CEO of NatureMetrics, a company that, well, measures nature. But how?
"We use eDNA; that's all the DNA that's left behind in the environment by every species because every species in the world contains DNA," she explains during the livestream discussion "Time for nature: Turning biodiversity risk into opportunity," hosted by GZERO in partnership with Suntory.
But the animals and plants you see, Critchlow points out, are only a tiny fraction of total life on earth. There's a lot of very small stuff too.
Those microbes, fungi, and nematodes are what matter most to business risk because they "drive the nutrient cycles and the carbon cycles and basically keep us all alive."
Learn more about this GZERO Media live discussion: https://www.gzeromedia.com/sustainability
Biodiversity loss: Is nature-positive the new net zero?
The world has been in a climate emergency for years now. But much less attention is paid to biodiversity loss — which is a very big deal since we're on the brink of a sixth mass extinction.
On the heels of the ongoing COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada, we gathered experts from the public and private sectors to discuss the gravity of the problem and, more importantly, how to fix it. The solution lies with businesses, although it needs help from policymakers to figure out how to make money in a sustainable way that not only protects life on earth but actually reverses the course of its destruction.
Here are a few highlights from "Time for nature: Turning biodiversity risk into opportunity," a livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Suntory.
Ko Barrett, vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and senior adviser for climate at NOAA, offers a primer on the importance of biodiversity to human life and explains why we can't solve climate change without addressing biodiversity loss simultaneously.
Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer delves into the geopolitics of biodiversity as an economic issue and identifies the three types of risk companies face from biodiversity loss.
Suntory CEO Tak Niinami gives his take on why companies should do more to coexist with nature long-term and share their know-how to reverse biodiversity destruction.
Kathleen McLaughlin, Walmart's executive VP and chief sustainability officer, shares how retailers can work not only to conserve but also protect nature with successful examples from Walmart's Project Gigaton.
Ingrid Kukuljan, head of Impact & Sustainable Investing at Federated Hermes, laments how investors have ignored nature despite the many opportunities in public markets and dismisses metrics as the big obstacle to mobilizing more money for biodiversity.
FNZ Group sustainability chief Vian Sharif addresses greenwashing related to biodiversity and admits that the financial sector is only at the beginning of its nature-positive journey.
NatureMetrics CEO Katie Critchlow explains how her company "measures nature," which many people are not aware can actually be done.
International Council on Mining and Metals CEO Rohitesh “Ro” Dhawan shares how even extractive companies can have a positive impact on biodiversity via conservation, restoration, and data, and want governments to be more ambitious on this issue.
Magali Anderson, Holcim's chief sustainability and innovation officer, says that the world's biggest cement company wants two things from COP15: a framework for corporations and a commitment to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures technical director Emily McKenzie comments on why markets are ready to take action on biodiversity and gives an update on what's cooking with the TNFD.
Anthony Watanabe, chief sustainability officer at Indorama, gives a rundown of what his company is doing on nature-positive.- Fixing climate in Asia… and recycling its plastics too ›
- COP15 biodiversity wish list for the private sector ›
- COP27 winners and losers ›
- What to expect from COP27: “It’s pretty grim” ›
- How do financial disclosures help protect biodiversity? - GZERO Media ›
- 3 ways mining companies can help protect biodiversity - GZERO Media ›