Embedding Nature into Business: Why nature must be prioritised alongside climate in UK sustainability reporting

March 2026

As highlighted in the Dasgupta Review, our economies are embedded within nature, not external to it. A nature-positive, net-zero economy cannot be achieved without significant and urgent action from the private sector and business.

At IPBES-12 in February, we saw the publication of the landmark Business and Biodiversity assessment. This provides even further evidence on the dependencies and impacts between business and nature; businesses cannot thrive without the healthy ecosystems that support them. We have the scientific backing available for businesses to act now.

Nature is crucial to business success  

For too long, businesses have treated nature as an externality, something that concerns environmentalists and eNGOs and not something core to their business. This has led to nature being undervalued and exploited. But businesses are beginning to see the link between healthy ecosystems and successful business.

Some businesses have already made significant progress in embedding nature-related information into their strategies: measuring their impacts on soil health, water quality, and biodiversity, and setting targets to reduce them. But this must become the norm, not the exception.  Far too many businesses are setting climate targets while ignoring the ecosystems their operations depend on. The RSPB is calling for nature to be included in corporate sustainability reporting and planning.

Read the full policy position here.

This is a serious oversight. A food business cannot ignore pollinator decline and a water company cannot overlook wetland health. Investors, regulators, and consumers are increasingly aware of this gap. The question is whether UK Government will help close it.

An opportunity for corporate sustainability

The RSPB was one of many organisations that responded to last year’s consultation on the draft UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UKSRS) in which we advocated for nature to be included with equal priority to climate. The UK Government has just published the final draft of the UKSRS, based on those of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). It is disappointing to see the lack of priority given to nature and biodiversity.

This was a genuine opportunity to lead; to improve transparency, consistency, and comparability in sustainability  reporting that treats nature with the same importance as climate. Initially voluntary, UKSRS are expected to become mandatory for large businesses and financial institutions across the UK.

Under the current standards, companies may choose to report on nature if they deem it material. The RSPB’s position is straightforward: nature is material to every business and should therefore always be reported on.  

The ISSB is also developing a dedicated standard focusing on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. This is given added prominence due the lack of importance nature is granted in the current UKSRS. The RSPB strongly supports the development of this standard and would urge the UK Government to endorse this in due course.

The same applies to corporate transition plans. The UK Government’s recent consultation on corporate transition plans focused primarily on climate and the RSPB are keen to see nature equally prioritised. The publication of both climate and nature transition plans for large companies should be mandated, and these should inform one another.  The link between these crises means that the solutions are also deeply connected.

So, what are we asking for from UK Government?

Put simply, a greater sense of urgency for nature. We are calling on the UK government to: 

• Include both nature and climate disclosures within UKSRS with equal priority
• Support the development of an ISSB Biodiversity & Ecosystem Standard and when complete, adopt a nature-related standard into the UKSRS
• Through the UKSRS, mandate large businesses and financial institutions to publicly disclose their nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities within both their direct operations and their supply chains
• Require large businesses and financial institutions to publish a nature strategy with science-based targets
• Provide appropriate levels of resource and support to smaller businesses, who don’t fall under new proposed regulation, to understand nature-related information and produce nature transition plans
• Mandate businesses to regularly report on their progress against set targets
• Allocate appropriate level of government resource to monitor whether they have achieved targets

Disclosure is only the beginning

Even if our asks around disclosures are met, we recognise that this is just the start. We need genuine action from businesses beyond their disclosures and strategies.

Across sectors, we see organisations making public commitments, publishing policies and preparing for new reporting requirements but struggling to move from disclosure to delivery. Disclosures must become a driver of real-world outcomes. For nature, time is not on our side.