Trends in private sector engagement with biodiversity: EU listed companies' disclosure and indicators

Abstract

The EU biodiversity strategy highlights the relevance of the private sector and its prominent role as potential degrader and as protector of biodiversity. However, the topic of biodiversity seems to be downplayed and disregarded by most companies, and the potential proxies leading them to report on the matter are not yet clear.This exploratory paper aims at assessing the companies' actual engagement with the EU biodiversity strategy, and the factors influencing the relevance and quality of their disclosure indicators. To that purpose, 170 listed companies from the 5 biggest economies in the EU have been studied after their reporting indicators on biodiversity in 2018 and 2021, focusing on country, sector and impact intensity as potential drivers, as well as on the changes in reporting and indicators between those years.Our findings highlight an increased but heterogeneous engagement with biodiversity among EU listed companies, with limited relevance given by the companies to standard and quantitative performance indicators, and a strong influence on reporting of factors such as the companies' country of origin, and the companies' sector/activity. All of which suggests different approaches to biodiversity within the private sector and insufficient corporate action to meet the EU biodiversity strategy goals.