WWF-Canada and Aviva Canada launch free resource for Canadian businesses to take urgent action to protect biodiversity
New Business and Biodiversity Action Plan outlines practical steps companies can take to assess, minimize, and transform their impacts on nature
Toronto, ON, February 6, 2024 – WWF-Canada and Aviva Canada today released a new Action Plan available for Canadian businesses for how they can act to help halt and reverse biodiversity loss, better protect nature, and contribute to a more sustainable global economy.
Business and Biodiversity: Your company’s path towards nature positivity is a step-by-step Action Plan that offers clear direction on how businesses can address and help reverse the global crisis of biodiversity loss. Developed as a free resource with the practical needs of businesses in mind, it features a phased approach to action with steps that business leaders in all industries can take now, next quarter, and next year, in four key areas of action:
- Assess and Understand
- Minimize and Transform
- Invest in Nature
- Collaborate and Influence
The Action Plan is available online at wwf.ca/actionplan
Why now?
More than half of global GDP is directly dependent on thriving ecosystems, yet many of those ecosystems are critically threatened: around the world, monitored wildlife populations have declined by 69 per cent in just 50 years. Corporations are now exposed to trillions of dollars of nature-related risks. Stakeholders of all types — from investors to suppliers to customers — are starting to demand that businesses contribute to a healthy natural world.
In tandem with urgent decarbonization, it is time for all businesses to act to protect nature. Yet many lack the necessary expertise and resources to develop an actionable path forward. The Business and Biodiversity Action Plan supports this need by providing a practical, phased approach that business leaders can action immediately.
Aviva Canada and WWF-Canada
Since 2021, Aviva Canada has been the presenting partner of WWF-Canada’s Nature and Climate Grant Program, which supports community-led restoration projects centred on the implementation of nature-based climate solutions across Canada. WWF-Canada and Aviva Canada have pooled expertise in conservation, policy, business, and economics to jointly advocate for corporate Canada to take action to protect nature. The Action Plan is meant to amplify these important conversations and translate them into tangible steps businesses can take to create economy-wide impact.
Kathrin Majic, Senior Vice-President, Development, WWF-Canada, says:
“With more than a million plant and animal species facing extinction, and more than three hockey rinks worth of forest disappearing every two seconds, this Action Plan comes at a critical time. The health of our living planet, as well as our economy, both hinge on businesses taking decisive and meaningful action to become nature-positive organizations. Not only is our Action Plan an important step forward in our work to tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, it’s also good business, as organizations adapt to changing reporting standards and evolving stakeholder expectations.”
Paul Fletcher, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Aviva Canada, says:
“As an insurance company, we see the impacts of climate change on our customers and on our organization, every day. It became clear to us early on that striving to become a net zero company was not enough – that action on climate must happen in tandem with action on biodiversity. We believe that all Canadian businesses, regardless of industry, have a responsibility to not only understand their dependencies on nature and biodiversity, but also to mitigate the impact of their decisions and their operations on the natural world. We believe there’s a real need for a playbook to show companies what do to and how to do it, so we were delighted to develop this with WWF-Canada to help businesses get started.”
Learn more at GLOBE Forum 2024
Together, WWF-Canada and Aviva Canada will be presenting and discussing the Action Plan in depth during a concurrent session at GLOBE Forum 2024, taking place at the Vancouver Convention Centre from February 13 to 15, 2024 – as collaborating sponsors of the “Restoring and Protecting Nature” track. This session will bring WWF-Canada and Aviva Canada’s Business and Biodiversity Action Plan to life by featuring short back-to-back interviews with different Canadian business leaders, each sharing what their business is doing in one of our four areas of action: Daniel O’Brien, Partner, Head of Sustainable Business Solutions at PwC; Emma Race, Senior Director, Sustainability and Social Impact at Loblaw; and Paul Fletcher, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Aviva Canada. The session will be moderated by Kathrin Majic, Senior VP, Development at WWF-Canada.
Our Action Plan, Business and Biodiversity: Your Company’s Path Towards Nature-Positivity, is available at wwf.ca/actionplan
For further information, please contact:
For WWF-Canada
Laurence C. Desrosiers, Communications Manager, [email protected], 514-703-2409
For Aviva Canada
Parveen Singh, Communications Specialist – External Communications, [email protected], 437-221-3492
About World Wildlife Fund Canada
WWF-Canada is committed to equitable and effective conservation actions that restore nature, reverse wildlife loss and fight climate change. We draw on scientific analysis and Indigenous guidance to ensure all our efforts connect to a single goal: a future where wildlife, nature and people thrive. For more information visit wwf.ca.
About Aviva Canada
Aviva Canada is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in the country, providing home, automobile, lifestyle, and business insurance to 2.4 million customers. As a subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, Aviva Canada has more than 4,000 employees focused on creating a sustainable future for our people, our customers, our communities and our planet. In 2021, Aviva plc announced Aviva’s global ambition to become a net zero carbon emissions company by 2040.
For more information, visit aviva.ca or Aviva Canada’s blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
