#Business #Sustainable Transition
Published 7/10/18
Reading 7 Min.
Published 7/10/18
Reading 7 Min.
#Business #Sustainable Transition

Preserving biodiversity is the mainstay of an international collective movement with actions that include the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the Conference of the Parties being organized by China in 2020, the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, the G7 Environment summit in 2019 and the Biodiversity Plan that was recently unveiled by the French government on July 4. With a strong climate commitment already under its belt, Natixis decided to mobilize its business lines to promote biodiversity by joining the act4nature initiative.

By adopting the act4nature initiative, which associates French companies hailing from every sector, we are pledging to include nature in our corporate strategy and to perform concrete actions to deliver solutions that preserve biological diversity, to restore and sustain its viability, and use the profits generated from it in an equitable manner.

By joining the Act4nature initiative, Natixis pledges to uphold the 10 collective principles and to communicate on individual commitments for our activities out to end-2019 by observing the SMART directives. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based.

 

Our commitments Our actions 
1. Include biodiversity in our corporate strategy by basing it on available scientific knowledge. Biodiversity is an integral part of our ESR, which is a key and all-encompassing driver of our New Dimension strategic plan.
2. Communicate with all our stakeholders about their expectations, our impacts, our actions and our progress. We communicate with NGOs and non-financial rating agencies on the full spectrum of ESR topics.

3. Evaluate the different biodiversity components that concern us by direct and indirect impact indicators, plus risk and progress indicators, and, when it is relevant to a decision, make an economic assessment of our impacts and our dependence on the proper functioning of biodiversity.

The risks and impacts associated with biodiversity are:
– currently considered in our project finance activities in keeping with our position as a signatory to the Equator Principles since 2010;
– gradually being integrated into our asset management activities with the inclusion of ESG criteria by our Mirova and Ostrum Asset Management subsidiaries.

4. Promote the gradual inclusion of biodiversity in decisions throughout all our value chains, from the production of natural commodities until the end of the products’ lifespan after being used by consumers.

This is gradually being addressed by our duty of vigilance, which includes the environment and hence biodiversity.
5. First and foremost avoid, reduce and lastly offset our impacts by targeting on a case-by-case basis an absence of net loss – or rather ensure a net gain – of biodiversity in our activities and geographical zones of influence, and by taking account of ecosystems’ adaptation needs to climate change.

The inclusion and mitigation of impacts on biodiversity in project finance in keeping with the Equator Principles and the exclusion of projects in protected and sensitive regions like the Arctic region.
6. Develop Nature-Based Solutions as a matter of priority by ensuring that when they are implemented they are based on scientific reasoning and that they benefit biodiversity, notably by promoting variety in these solutions.

In 2017, our Mirova subsidiary launched the LDN fund (Land Degradation Neutrality Fund) a first-of-its-kind investment vehicle which contributes to the achievement of land degradation neutrality. Mirova has an assets-under-management target size of €1bn by 2020.

7. Include biodiversity in our dialogue with public authorities so that this issue is onboarded in public policies. When we are invited to do so, we will play a role in crafting national biodiversity strategies in the countries in which we operate.

In 2017, Natixis signed the 100 Hectares Objective Charter to green up roofs, terraces, courtyards and walls in its Paris-based buildings.
8. Raise employees’ awareness and provide training about biodiversity and its relationship with their business lines, plus promote and encourage their initiatives to help nature, and reward these actions and practices. 

Training sessions on environmental and social challenges (including biodiversity) are being set up for employees everywhere and will begin in 2018.
Biodiversity was the theme of Sustainable Development Week 2018, which included talks by Pascal Canfin, CEO of the NGO World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). 
Projects to green up buildings, putting beehives on our buildings’ terraces and organizing a cycle of conferences on biodiversity will help raise employee awareness.

9. Mobilize resources and create appropriate partnerships to support our concrete actions and ensure their follow-up. 

Partnerships are being established to develop biodiversity in our offices. A cross-business work-group is mobilizing our business lines on biodiversity topics and, more generally, on protecting natural capital through our activities.
10. Give public account of how we implement these commitments and of our individual commitments. 

We keep records each year of our actions in support of the environment, including those involving biodiversity. These actions appear in Natixis’ Reference Document.