For most companies these days, the environment—which is synonymous with climate change for many executives—has become an important topic. Companies know that consumers and employees care about the environment, and their interest often presents real business opportunities and risks. But another key environmental concern is emerging: biodiversity, or the diversity of species, variety of ecosystems, and variability of genes. Biodiversity now occupies a similar position in the public debate as climate change did in 2007. Our survey asked respondents about what biodiversity means, how important it is to their businesses, and why.¹ The survey also asked respondents what specific risks their companies might face from reduced biodiversity, what actions they are taking to address issues related to it, and what kinds of regulations they would support to maintain biodiversity.

One of the most striking findings is that a majority of executives, 59 percent, see biodiversity as more of an opportunity than a risk for their companies. They identify a variety of potential opportunities, such as bolstering corporate reputations with environmentally conscious stakeholders by acting to preserve biodiversity and developing new products or ideas from renewable natural resources. The positive outlook on biodiversity is in stark contrast to executives’ views on climate change in late 2007, when only 29 percent saw the issue as more of an opportunity than a threat.² Perhaps addressing climate change over the past few years has changed some executives’ views on the potential upside of environmental issues.

Just over half of respondents to this survey say their companies are taking some action to address biodiversity. Notably, among those, the two most frequent steps are communicating about their companies’ use of renewable natural resources and changing operations to reduce such use—even in industries that are not highly regulated and whose operations don’t have much direct impact on biodiversity. This priority for operations is consistent with findings from other surveys on the role of business in society, which suggest that perceptions of these issues have shifted over the years: executives once approached them purely as a public-relations risk or opportunity but now recognize the real impact they can have on operations and corporate value.³