Business and nature

Nature has provided everything that humanity needs to survive in the form of ecosystem services. Yet human actions have currently threatened more species (flora and fauna) with global extinction than ever before. The current rate of extinction is ten to hundred times higher than the average of over the past 10 million years and it is accelerating (IPBES, 2019, “Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services”).

As global economic prosperity depends on a healthy natural world, SDGs 14 (Life below Water) and 15 (Life on Land) ensures protection and restoration of terrestrial and marine ecosystems to reverse degradation and biodiversity loss. Businesses in the present times are trying to understand the dependencies and reliance upon natural capital assets and ecosystem services but there are gaps in between recognising relationships and dependencies. An analysis of 163 industry sectors and their supply chains found that over half of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services (The New Nature Economy Report released in WEF 2020).

This session will focus on the role and commitment of businesses in addressing the impacts on nature, understand dependencies and scale up action for nature protection and restoration. As countries are in the process of negotiating a new deal for nature, the Summit will provide an incredible opportunity to deliberate on the actions taken and plan for new paths of growth, innovation and sustainable development.

Food Systems

Food Systems encompass a range of activities involved in the production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products. Over recent years, food systems are changing due to rapid population growth, urbanization, growing wealth, changing consumption patterns, globalization as well as climate change and depletion of natural resources. This change has led to many positive results like employment opportunities and widening of food choices. However, it has also resulted in several challenges like rise in consumption of low nutritional food items, increase in food loss and waste generation, and incidents of health risks. According to the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, more than 2 billion people in the world lack the nutrients required for a healthy life, and one third of the global population is expected to be overweight or obese by 2030.

In order to achieve Sustainable Development Goals of Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3), it is important that global food systems need to be reshaped to be more productive, more inclusive, environmentally sustainable, resilient, and able to deliver healthy and nutritious diets. Recent and potential technological innovations, as well as strengthening of traditional crops and farming practices have shown an opportunity to reshape the food systems. In this context, the session will discuss the actions and efforts in shifting towards sustainable food systems. It will throw light on how companies and other system players are reducing contaminants in food supplies, promoting indigenous variety of food and influencing consumer preferences.

Responsible consumption

Consumers are key to driving responsible consumption and play a vital role in sustainable development. They can inspire businesses with respect to the use of products and services in a way that minimizes the impact on environment. Companies and consumers both can strive to meet their needs and desires without depleting the planets finite natural resources and preserving it for our future generations too.

SDG-12: Sustainable Consumption and Production, is a crucial SDG that emphasizes on creating resource efficient production systems for sustainable goods and services to achieve sustainable development, economic growth and the well-being of society. Aligned with this, India is making concentrated and continuous efforts to ensure and enhance resource efficiency in the consumption and production system. Many Indian companies are gradually integrating practices set out in the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) into their business strategy.

This session will explore how sustainable consumption and production patterns can create massive new opportunities for businesses. The role of businesses to propagate responsible consumption, new consumer trends and success stories of businesses in meeting environmental goals will also be focused upon.

Inclusive workplaces

Inclusion is essential for the functioning of a diverse workforce and involves successful integration of diverse people into a workplace. Inclusive culture has now become a business imperative as diversity and inclusion are not only viewed as assets to an organization and employees, but as a necessity for growth and achievement. The scope of diversity has increased beyond gender, race and ethnicity; it now includes employees with varied religious and political beliefs, education, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientation, cultures as well as disabilities.

It is also understood that by encouraging an inclusive workplace, business can meet the SDGs - reduced inequalities (SDG 10), gender equality (SDG 5) and decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) for all. The Indian Government has made conscious efforts such as mandating listed companies to have at least one-woman director on their boards, government extending the maternity leave to six months, passage of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill and leading corporations promoting LGBT rights at workplace. Similarly, Indian companies have acquired momentum to promote inclusive workplace culture. This session will bring together stakeholders who are beneficiaries of such a culture and discuss their journey towards inclusive development.

Agriculture and Climate Change

Agriculture plays a vital role in overall economic and social well-being of a country. It is highly dependent upon weather and climate in order to produce the food and fibre necessary to sustain human life. Climate change induced increase in temperatures, rainfall variation, frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are adding to pressures on global agricultural. It is negatively affecting both crop and livestock production in most regions.

The Sustainable Development Goals, from poverty eradication (SDG1) and ending hunger (SDG2) to conserving biodiversity (SDG15), will be unattainable if climate change (SDG13) is not urgently addressed. Shifting to more resilient, productive and sustainable agriculture and food systems is crucial for improving food security. But it also contributes to climate change mitigation as GHG emissions from human activity and livestock are a significant contributor to global warming. Furthermore, sustainable and climate-smart agriculture practices can improve the resilience of ecosystems and reduce the vulnerability to climate impacts. The session will discuss importance of agriculture in dealing with climatic changes and what actions should be taken for agriculture to be productive and beneficial to farmers.

Health systems

Health is crucial factor for social, economic and overall development of a country.

Half the global population does not have access to essential health services. Over 68% of the population in India is based in rural areas and has minimal access to healthcare. The richer section of the society is benefiting from advancements in health care systems. The gap in catering to the immediacy of the health problems for the marginalized in India is widening every day.

Given the large number of people still living below the poverty line in India, the affordability of quality healthcare is a problem and needs to be addressed by looking at both sides of the equation. Society needs to work towards creating a healthcare sector that ensures quality healthcare to the poorest of the poor, as well as facilitates the availability of best-in-class products and services to those who can afford it.

The Coronavirus pandemic serves as an eye opener on the lack of preparedness of health systems to tackle the situation. Health care systems lack adequate infrastructure and manpower needed at such times. Concentrated efforts are required to achieve universal health coverage and sustainable financing for health. Sustainable Development Goal 3 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to “ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages”-

This session will touch upon how society can access quality health services without risking financial hardship and how the advancement of technology has strengthened health systems. Also, this session will focus on organisations working towards providing better healthcare to rural the section.

Climate change

The effects of climate change are already being felt by people across the globe. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are unprecedented in scale. The magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades depends primarily on the amount of heat-trapping gases emitted globally, and how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to those emissions. The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  Special Report on 1.5 Degrees of Warming  highlights urgency of much-needed climate actions as emphasized by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 13) to combat climate change and its impacts. COVID-19 has shown us that the economy can be abruptly disrupted, supply chains affected and social conditions can fall drastically. What it has also shown us, is that if governments are willing, we can fight the climate change battle.

Countries are making transformational shifts towards low-emission development pathways compatible with the objectives of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. A new leadership group, led by India and Sweden, was announced at the United Nations Climate Action Summit to help guide the world’s greenhouse gas emitting industries (hard to abate sectors) towards a low-carbon economy. Even after multiple partnerships, agreements, schemes and policies at the global and national level, the pace of acting against climate change is very slow globally and disasters are visible and impact is noticeable as days go by. India has committed to ambitious goals and on the domestic front, initiated many activities that will contribute to the targets; however, a lot of clarity is required with respect to active participation by the private sector.

The session will focus on why it is important for India to transition to a low carbon economy fast, how the transition will take place and which areas of the economy have to work together to make it possible as well as how to evaluate an individual company’s contribution in light of the science and challenges that exist.

Air Pollution

Renewable Energy

Energy is the essence of modern economies and societies, which makes the management and development of energy resources an absolute priority. With environmental concerns rising and sustainability becoming the touchstone, efforts to meet renewable energy goals need to be scaled up. This is reflected in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7: “Access to affordable and energy for all”. Carbon-intensive economic development is no longer an option, meaning that clean and renewable sources must be placed at the center of the energy policy.

India is increasingly adopting responsible renewable energy techniques and taking positive steps towards reducing carbon emissions, cleaning the air and ensuring a more sustainable future. The role of new and renewable energy has been assuming increasing significance in recent times with the growing concern for the country’s energy security. This session will focus on the ecosystem of renewable energy and will also discuss on embracing new technologies in the field of renewable energy on a much wider scale.

Future of Marine Life

Marine life has been degraded at a rate and scale that is unprecedented in human history. The flow of waste, including plastic and chemicals, to the seas across the world threatens the existence of several marine species, and human beings indirectly. The ocean is considered as the largest ecosystem on the planet, regulating change and variability in the climate and supporting global economy, nutrition, health and wellbeing, water supply and energy. To achieve global sustainability and SDG 14 i.e. ‘conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources’, it is important to create a new blue economy through innovation and effective strategies to combat the adverse effects. Many corporates and start-ups are now practicing sustainable solutions to solve this grand challenge. Recycling of ocean-bound plastics to reduce pollution has been a major initiative for organisations across the globe. This session will discuss the efforts and interventions required to conserve marine ecosystems and sustainable use of ocean resources.

Circular Economy

The world is facing an unprecedented situation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally over 14.5 million have tested positive for the virus and the death toll has crossed 600,000. The pandemic has had enormous economic impacts world-over. The IMF estimates that the global economy will shrink by 3% in 2020. India’s factory output contracted a record 16.7% in March with economic activity coming to a standstill. The unemployment rate has increased from 7.2% in January to 23.5% in April. In April, 122 million Indians became unemployed; over 27 million of these were in the age group of 20-29. As India eases restrictions and attempts to open up the economy, there is a need to acknowledge the “new normal” and prepare for the future. The pandemic has brought to light the interdependencies of the global economy in terms of supply chains as also the need to secure resources and the supply of essential commodities. These factors call for renewed focus on circular economy (CE) principles​ which will address unemployment, future risks, including those arising from climate change, the need for businesses to be resilient and will increase competitiveness. This session will deliberate on the relevance of CE and RE, and how their adoption can benefit post COVID-19 growth strategies for India.

Leading with Resilience

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought with itself crises of varying nature; ranging from economic, health, workplace safety, job security, livelihoods to supply chain disruptions. Businesses are trying to create a balance between managing operations and livelihoods in a safe and secure environment. There are companies in India, led by leaders who are faring well in these areas. The session will focus on such leaders, who will speak about their journey since the pandemic impacted the nation and how they have managed to lead in this crisis. Leaders who are passionate, empathetic, innovative and fair, will feature in this session.

Sustainable Supply Chain

The Business Case for Deforestation-Free Supply Chains

Forests are vital to the planet, providing critical ecosystem services. We depend on forests for our survival, from the air we breathe to the wood we use. Besides providing habitats for animals and livelihoods for humans, forests also offer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion and mitigate climate change. Forests are one of the largest, most cost-effective climate solutions available today. On an average, 13 million hectares of forest disappears every year, often with devastating impacts on communities and indigenous peoples, biodiversity, and climate change–making deforestation one of the most significant global environmental challenges today. Expanding agriculture and unsustainable logging, due to an increasing global demand is responsible for most of the world’s deforestation and degradation. India’s consumption footprint across key soft commodities like palm oil, soybean oil, timber, pulp & paper, and natural rubber is among the highest in the world, fueled by an expansion in population, along with a rising middle class and the changing consumption patterns that come with it. With constraints to domestic supply, India’s consumption currently outstrips its domestic production across most commodity categories, leading to a significant reliance on imports. This has pushed India into a pivotal position in the global soft commodities trade, with a growing potential to influence sustainable resource management across several countries. Recognising the business risks associated with this, there is a growing movement towards ‘deforestation-free’ supply chains in the private sector. In this context, WWF-India in partnership with CII is hosting a panel discussion on The Business Case for Deforestation-Free Supply Chains at the 15th Sustainability Summit.