The apparel and footwear sector has come a cropper in a new benchmarking assessment which assesses companies on basis of their efforts to arrest biodiversity loss.
- Only Kering (with a score of 55.2/100) features amog the top seven companies in the top bracket of comapnies scoring over 40.
- Kering is also the top-ranked among all companies.
- The rankings and assessment are from the 2022 Nature Benchmark which measures and ranks the world’s most influential companies on their efforts to protect the environment and its biodiversity.
- The rankings were published ahead of the COP15 conference of the Convention on Biological Divesity (CBD) by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA).
The Project: This benchmark is the first comprehensive assessment covering nearly 400 companies across eight industries, which will be further expanded by 600 companies and 12 industries in 2023.
- This assessment provides publicly available, evidence-based insights into where the world’s most influential companies stand on their contributions to a nature-positive future, on how they are reducing their negative impacts on nature, and contributing to the protection and restoration of ecosystems, aligned with the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
- All companies were assessed on 25 nature indicators, in addition to the 18 core social indicators. The indicators covered three main measurement areas where stakeholders’ expectations are high: governance and strategy; social inclusion and community impact; and ecosystems and biodiversity.
The Key Findings Overall:
- Only 5% of companies have carried out a science-based assessment looking at how their operations and business model have an impact on nature and biodiversity. In contrast, 50% of companies have set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Companies can tackle biodiversity loss by committing to avoid ecosystem conversion, for example by reducing deforestation or protecting wetlands. However, less than 5% of companies assessed currently have this in place.
- Measuring biodiversity and how it is impacted requires long-term monitoring efforts. While 50% of companies disclose the location of their operational sites, only 14% clearly indicate whether these are located in or near areas of high ecological value, making it difficult to hold the majority of companies accountable for their impacts in these high priority areas.
- Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities manage about 40% of all terrestrial protected areas and their ecological knowledge enables a sustainable existence worldwide. Yet, less than 13% of companies assessed express a clear commitment to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
- Companies can be strong advocates for nature-positive policies when their advocacy is rooted in meaningful stakeholder engagement. Yet, while more than 58% of companies survey their stakeholders’ interests, only 8% incorporate their stakeholders’ feedback strategically.
Apparel and Footwear Companies: Out of the 66 companies from the apparel and footwear sector that were assessed, only Kering (55.2) featured in the top bracket (of companies scoring 40+ out of 100).
- 6 companies feature in the 30-40 bracket; 15 in the 20-30 bracket, 26 in the 10-20 bracket; and 18 in the below-10 bracket.
- Five companies scored zero: Forever 21, Heilan Group, Semir, Souyute Group, and Youngor Group.
The Benchmark: Founded in 2018, the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) is a non-profit organisation holding 2,000 of the world’s most influential companies accountable for their part in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
- It does this by publishing free and publicly available benchmarks on their performance. WBA shows what good corporate practice looks like so that leading companies have an incentive to keep going and laggards feel pressure to catch up.
- WBA has identified seven systems that, if transformed, have the greatest potential to put our society, planet and economy on a more sustainable and resilient path. To turn these transformations into action, WBA develops, in close collaboration with the Alliance, a series of benchmarks assessing 2,000 of the world’s most influential companies.
