Varma's Senior Vice President of Sustainability Hanna Kaskela: "Curbing biodiversity loss requires much more practical action from companies"

Biodiversity loss threatens life on Earth. Countless species and ecosystems have already been endangered. The activities of almost all enterprises depend directly or indirectly on nature.

Varma's survey included 318 (282) companies operating in high-risk sectors. The study included listed equity investments and exchange-traded equity funds, i.e. ETFs. The companies included companies whose market value exceeds one million euros.

 "A key finding in the study was that taking biodiversity loss into account requires much more practical measures from companies. Biodiversity loss poses significant risks to companies' operations, and the related regulation will have a strong impact on companies. This will change the operating conditions," says Hanna Kaskela, Senior Vice President of Sustainability.

Of the companies surveyed, 39 (27) per cent had set targets for taking biodiversity into account in their operations. However, less than half, 43 (51) per cent, of the companies had expressed their intention to take action to take biodiversity into account or compensate for it. Only nine (five) per cent of all companies had a concrete action plan to fulfil the commitment.

"Considering how much information is available on biodiversity loss, it is a miracle that so many companies lacked a concrete action plan to take biodiversity into account," Kaskela says.

About one-fifth, 18 (22) per cent of companies had not taken biodiversity-related issues into account at all in their public policies.

Commitments must extend all the way to the subcontracting chain

Varma's survey examined the high-risk industries. Varma has defined electricity and heat production, oil and gas, mining, forestry, automotive, building materials, transportation, food and chemical industries as risk sectors. This year, the agricultural, pharmaceutical and personal product industries, manufacturers of packaging materials, textile and luxury goods industries, and waste management companies were also included as risk sectors.

Varma actively takes into account financial risks related to biodiversity as part of its investment operations. Biodiversity has also been taken into account in Varma's environmental policy, which was renewed this year.

"As an investor, we aim to identify companies' dependencies on biodiversity and invest in companies that are the best players in their field. We encourage companies to identify the impacts of their own operations on biodiversity loss and to make plans to take the impacts into account. The guidelines and policies made by companies must extend all the way to the subcontracting chain," Kaskela says.

Varma has joined the Nature Action 100 initiative that drives greater corporate ambition and action on tackling biodiversity loss. Participating investors will focus on mobilizing companies deemed to be systemically important to the goal of reversing nature and biodiversity loss.

Japanese companies make progress in taking biodiversity into account

According to Varma's survey, European companies are at the forefront of setting targets compared to companies operating in North America and Asia. However, Japan was an exception. In Japan, half of the companies examined have set targets for preventing biodiversity loss.

The survey was a continuation of Varma's own biodiversity work and a similar study carried out last year. In its own operations, Varma is committed to joint agreements to halt biodiversity loss and restore nature on the path to recovery by 2030.

In the survey now carried out, the companies' biodiversity policies were divided into four categories: (0) no mention of the topic, (1) statement of intent to take action, (2) commitment and detailed targets for taking biodiversity into account, and (3) a detailed implementation plan to fulfil the commitment. The material was collected from public data, in which case the sources were companies' annual and responsibility reports, websites and the biodiversity policies drawn up by companies for their operations.

Additional information:  

Hanna Kaskela, Senior Vice President, Sustainability & Communications, tel. +358 40 584 5045 or hanna.kaskela(at)varma.fi       
 

Marjut Tervola, Communications Manager, tel. +358 45 673 0120 or marjut.tervola(at)varma.fi