Corporate Social Responsibility

Economics & Public Policy

Academic area

Off

External

Off

51�Թ�� Business School’s event showcased female leaders driving sustainable investing, ESG innovation and long-term value creation.

Main image: 51�Թ�� Business School | Fergus Burnett

3 minute read

Adapting to a changing climate: how businesses can mitigate physical environmental risks

Michael Wilkins — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:14:02 +0000

Adapting to a changing climate: how businesses can mitigate physical environmental risks

Michael Wilkins Wed, 15/01/2025 - 12:14

More blogs

13 April 2026 Knowledge

Expert Q&A: Henry Dimbleby on the hidden ways ultra-processed foods harm our health and why the government must act now

20 March 2026 Knowledge

'Boomerasking': How to break the annoying habit hurting your workplace relationships

12 March 2026 Knowledge

Who decided what ambition looks like?

23 June 2025

Global warming is causing sea levels to rise, heatwaves to increase in severity, and floods and storms to be more common. Rural areas are often perceived to bear the brunt of these physical impacts, but urban areas are not immune. Cities are likely to face major climate-related physical disruption in the near future. Impacts such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall may cost the UK, for example, as much as 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2045, according to estimates.

Planning and investment in adaptation is key in preparing for and mitigating this toll, including flood protection, nature restoration and green infrastructure. However, research shows that businesses could be underestimating investor losses from physical climate risks by as much as 70 per cent, rising to 82 per cent when extreme risks such as cyclones and floods are also taken into account.

Financing change

To address this issue, businesses need to be able to attract the requisite investment to fund climate adaptation projects. Blended finance mechanisms can help with this, combining public and private resources to reduce investor risk. Specific market instruments such as catastrophe bonds, environmental impact bonds and insurance premium incentives can also mitigate risk.

Similarly, grant funding can help to cover project development costs and protect against initial losses, while government guarantees can help to reduce perceived risks for investors. More radically, a switch to results-based financing may help to shift industry focus away from tokenistic actions and towards achieving specific adaptation outcomes.

Recent research from 51�Թ��’s Centre for Climate Finance and Investment explores some of these approaches in detail. The research focuses on how climate adaptation and resilience measures can be financed to protect London and the UK from physical climate threats, including lessons from Copenhagen and Singapore.

Firms should be looking to integrate physical climate adaptation into their net-zero strategies, making it a shared responsibility across the C-suite.

First steps in adaptation

Currently, firms frequently rely on commercial risk assessments using corporate-level scoring systems. These lack transparency and are difficult to reproduce, and they tend to miss the crucial location-specific vulnerabilities that climate change is rapidly exacerbating.

Compounding the issue, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack the tools and information to effectively carry out more accurate assessments, or lack the management will to address an issue that sits beyond the typical risk management horizon of 3-10 years. Climate adaptation projects are also tricky to fund, being highly site-specific and resource-intensive.

Culturally too, there is an issue with how firms view adaptation. World Economic Forum research found that while 60 per cent of businesses see climate mitigation as a very high priority, only 27 per cent felt the same about climate adaptation. This suggests many view climate risk as a general social responsibility or business opportunity, rather than an immediate threat necessitating practical action.

Taking steps

As an initial step, switching from corporate risk scoring to asset-level damage assessments would help provide businesses a more accurate picture in terms of climate risk pricing, particularly when it comes to highlighting vulnerabilities specific to a particular site or area. The findings can then inform continuity, crisis and recovery plans for climate-related physical events, from water supply stresses to natural disasters.

More broadly, firms should be looking to integrate physical climate adaptation into their net-zero strategies, making it a shared responsibility across the C-suite. Businesses can support this approach by conducting capability audits to measure how well climate resilience is embedded throughout different parts of the organisation.

Following this process, single points of failure can be addressed through such actions as diversifying supply chains and delivery routes. At the same time, businesses can create contingency plans to support the safety, health and productivity of their workforces in case of specific failures or risks occurring, and look to partner with stakeholders to develop system-wide responses.

Policy support

Realistically, these steps are unlikely to take place at the required pace and scale without adequate policy support. Governments need to build on existing reporting requirements from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, mandating the type of comprehensive climate risk assessments and plans discussed above.

The International Sustainability Standards Board provides a framework for this, but policymakers still have a key role to play in terms of ensuring that businesses substantively engage with adaptation planning, rather than treating it as an inconvenient compliance exercise.

To help with this, governments can stipulate penalties for non-cooperation and provide financial incentives, including targeted financial support for climate adaptation project development at the same level that already exists for climate mitigation work.

Policymakers can also help to scale projects by coordinating stakeholders to encourage collaboration, and by streamlining regulatory processes to support investment. The establishment of dedicated offices, such as the UK’s Regulatory Innovation Office, can help to reduce regulatory barriers to climate adaptation technologies.

Future outlook

Looking long-term, adaptation policies can be explicitly linked to economic growth objectives, highlighting how climate resilience supports economic development. This includes incorporating adaptation into industrial strategies and innovation policies, ensuring that climate resilience becomes a cornerstone of economic competitiveness rather than an additional burden.

This is crucial, given the urgent need for businesses, investors and policymakers to start viewing physical climate adaptation not just as a social responsibility or an investment opportunity, but as an existential threat.

Edited 23 June 2025: This article’s strapline was changed for accuracy and to better reflect the findings of the research.

Learn more

Digital Transformation

Sustainability

Centre for Climate Finance & Investment

Research Centre

Knowledge Categories

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Academic area

Management & Entrepreneurship

As physical climate risks intensify, new research from 51�Թ��’s Centre for Climate Finance and Investment reveals how climate adaptation and resilience measures can be financed to protect businesses in London and the UK from these threats

Main image: Korakrich Suntornnites / iStock via Getty Images Plus

4 minute read

Off

Are investors falling out of love with ESG?: Forbes quotes CCFI's Mike Wilkins

Evie Burrows-Taylor — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 10:38:43 +0000

Are investors falling out of love with ESG?: Forbes quotes CCFI's Mike Wilkins Evie Burrows-Taylor Mon, 06/01/2025 - 10:38

19 December 2024

Does it pay to be a rule breaker in business?

Celia Moore — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 15:43:01 +0000

Does it pay to be a rule breaker in business?

Celia Moore Wed, 27/11/2024 - 15:43

28 November 2024

One of the first lessons we learn in life is not to break the rules – but new research from 51�Թ�� Business School reveals there might actually be perks to being a rebel in the business world.

Though organisations and nations alike set rules in an effort to constrain our worst human tendencies, for as long as there have been rules, individuals have been breaking them. And it doesn’t take more than a cursory look at the news to see how self-proclaimed rule breakers can succeed: take, for example, the belief of Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest inhabitants, that “the only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation”.

Once behaviour deemed "dodgy" is normalised, it’s extremely hard to get rid of it

Indeed, rule breaking can appear to be a mandatory part of business. Yet there has been almost no research on the benefits of breaking rules – perhaps because social science has a conscience, and has preferred focusing on the penalties it elicits rather than its rewards. For rule breaking to be as normative as it is, individual rule breakers need positive feedback. So, we conducted a study to look at whether managers reward and promote employees who flout rules – and how far that encouragement might stretch.

What we discovered is perhaps sadder than it is surprising: managers do give rule breakers preferential treatment over their rule-abiding peers, providing they don’t overdo it.

Rule breaking in sports

Given the difficulty of identifying rule breaking with certainty in real-world contexts, we looked at how coaches reward rule breaking in ice hockey. Sports data are detailed and precise – unlike in the corporate world where there is evidence that some try to hush up transgressions. Why ice hockey? Players frequently infringe sporting rules – we looked at nearly 214,000 incidents – and referees penalise players immediately. Culprits are removed from play for a while, with knock-on effects on their short-handed team’s performance.

Our research found no evidence that team performance improved as a result of rule breaking

Using detailed data gathered over six seasons from the National Hockey League, and conducting an additional experiment to confirm our findings, we discovered that those who break the rules are rewarded by their coaches with extra playing time over the season. This is despite the fact that taking penalties risks losses for their teams.

The one silver lining is that coaches have a tipping point: the most rampant offenders – those whose rule breaking forces them to sit out for significant periods – are rewarded less. Largely, this preferential treatment is most obvious in the games with relatively low stakes, rather than during games that were pivotal to their team’s fortunes. And it was the minor, rather than major, rule infringements that brought rewards.

Fostering a rule-breaking culture

Another experiment we conducted backed up our findings and gave more insight into managers’ motivations for this risky and potentially counterproductive behaviour. Moderate rule breaking appears to elicit attributions of a player’s grit and commitment. But extreme rule breakers – while also perceived as demonstrating commitment – were also considered more of a liability, and thus less likely to be rewarded.

For rule breaking to be as normative as it is, individual rule breakers need positive feedback

Our findings are both troublesome and reassuring. What is concerning is that they imply that organisations foster cultures of rule breaking – such that it becomes normalised in daily business. A cynic might conclude that managers condone rule breaking because they believe it will bring benefits for themselves. In our work, no managers were required to explain why they were rewarding rule breaking.

They had discretion to make the call without the need for justification. Research has already shown that once behaviour deemed "dodgy" is normalised, it’s extremely hard to get rid of it.

The results of bad behaviour

There are a few reasons to take heart. Our research found no evidence that team performance improved as a result of rule breaking – if anything, it declined in the teams we looked at, although we didn’t identify any causal link for this association. Organisations should also be wary when their performance is in decline: when a team in our sample is performing badly, managers become more likely to reward their rule breakers than when they are on a winning streak.

This fits with previous research that finds people are more likely to take risks and break rules in competitive environments. In these circumstances, managers might interpret a willingness to push boundaries as a sign of commitment to a company or campaign.

For as long as there have been rules, individuals have been breaking them

Our work asks as many questions as it answers. We’ve only looked at situations governed by clearly defined rules – but what if these are hazy or open to interpretation in less regulated environments? What about rule breaking that is only observed by a few – rather than being clear for all to see on the ice? What is clear is that rule breaking does seem to be enabled by the people in charge. We need to know more.

This article draws on findings from "A (Bounded) Preference for Rule Breakers" by S. Wiley Wakeman (Stockholm School of Economics), Philip Yang (Paderborn University Business School) and Celia Moore (51�Թ��).

Leadership

Management

Main image: sesame/DigitalVision Vectors

Monthly newsletter

Receive the latest insights from 51�Թ�� Business School

How leaders can get their teams to push back

51�Թ�� research has identified evidence-based strategies managers can use to build teams with the confidence to challenge them.

Centre for Responsible Leadership

Research Centre

Academic area

Management & Entrepreneurship

Knowledge Categories

Management

5 ways to find meaning and purpose in your work

Michael Mills — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 08:57:51 +0000

5 ways to find meaning and purpose in your work

Michael Mills Mon, 21/08/2023 - 08:57

21 August 2023

Work doesn’t have to be boring or stressful. You can find meaning and purpose in your work by following these five insights from 51�Թ�� Business School experts

Finding meaning and purpose in your work is not only beneficial for your well-being, but also for your performance, creativity and innovation. Here are some insights from 51�Թ�� Business School experts on how to achieve this goal.

1. Make the most of your time in the office

Whether hybrid working is new to you or something you’ve been doing for years, it can be a challenge to feel like you’re getting the most out of the home/office split, and not just spending parts of your week in different places. Dr Omar Merlo, Associate Dean (External Relations), explains how time in the office can be used to strengthen your business’s customer focus, while avoiding the pitfalls of remote communication.

2. Learn from Japanese philosophy

But don’t you feel like you should be getting something out of your work too? Customer-centricity is great, but it can’t be your sole source of joy and satisfaction. If you recognise that feeling, you might want to learn about ikigai, a Japanese philosophy that can help you achieve personal and professional fulfilment. Frank Brueck, Leadership Lab Lead at 51�Թ�� Business School’s Leonardo Centre on Business for Society, explains how to apply it to your own career and organisation, so you can connect your passion and skills with market needs.

3. Learn from sport

For all that sporting metaphors can be a business cliché, sport can genuinely offer some lessons on how to find meaning and purpose in your work. In this article, Dr Jan-Michael Ross, Associate Professor of Strategy, shows how to use sports data effectively and rigorously to develop and test new management theories. He also highlights the opportunities and challenges of using sport as a research context, and the potential benefits for academics and practitioners alike.

4. Develop general skills

Innovation is a key driver of economic growth, but it also involves significant risks and uncertainties. According to Dr Cláudia Custódio, Associate Professor of Finance, CEOs with more general and transferable skills are likelier to invest in innovation and take advantage of new opportunities, as they have more outside options and are less scared of failure. She has also looked at the implications of this for the labour market for executives and the design of CEO contracts.

5. Recognise when you’re most creative

Creativity is an asset for any organisation, but it can be hard to foster and manage. In this article, Professor Paola Criscuolo and Dr Anne ter Wal explain the phenomenon of bootlegging, or underground innovation, where employees work on their own ideas without official approval or support. They argue that bootlegging can be a source of radical innovation, as it allows employees to pursue novel and risky ideas without fear of criticism or reprisal.

If you want to dive deeper into these topics, or explore other areas of interest, keep up to date with IB Knowledge, the site that features the latest research and thought leadership from 51�Թ�� Business School experts. You’ll find a wealth of content on topics such as finance, entrepreneurship, sustainability, health and more. Click here to find out more.

Digital transformation

Monthly newsletter

Receive the latest insights from 51�Թ�� Business School

Executing Sustainability Strategies

This 5 day on-campus Sustainability Strategies programme in London is designed for mid to senior-level managers who are accountable for or aspire to create and implement sustainable business strategies.

Leonardo Centre on Business for Society

Research Centre

Academic area

Management & Entrepreneurship

Knowledge Categories

1. Make those around you feel seen, safe and valued

5 ways to boost your leadership and communication skills

Michael Mills — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 12:29:35 +0000

5 ways to boost your leadership and communication skills

Michael Mills Wed, 02/08/2023 - 12:29

7 August 2023

Check out these five articles from 51�Թ�� Business School that offer some practical tips and insights into how to listen, communicate and network

As a manager or a policy maker, you know how important it is to communicate effectively and lead by example. But sometimes, it can be challenging to get your message across, motivate your team, and handle feedback. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of five articles from 51�Թ�� Business School academics that offer some practical tips and insights on how to improve your leadership and communication skills.

Whether you want to tell a compelling story, listen more attentively, network more strategically, think more responsibly, or learn from Yoda, these articles will help you become a better leader and communicator.

Responsible leadership is more than just a buzzword, it’s a mindset that can help leaders create positive social and environmental impact while achieving their business goals. In this article, Professor Celia Moore shares some examples of responsible leaders who have made a difference in their industries and communities.

2. Get employees onside with a story

Stories are powerful tools for communication. They can capture attention, convey emotions and persuade others. But how do you craft a story that resonates with your audience and aligns with your goals? In this article, Dr Elena Dalpiaz explains how Alessi, a design firm, used narratives to reinvent itself as a creative leader and how you can apply the same techniques to your own organisation. Discover the power of storytelling as a strategic tool for mobilising employees and stakeholders around a core idea.

3. Stop shouting and start listening

Do you think that being a successful leader means being assertive, dominant and loud? Think again. In this article, you will learn from Dr Ileana Stigliani how listening to your employees and sharing your own personal experiences can boost your results and create a more positive work environment. Find out how to develop empathy, trust and collaboration as key leadership skills and how to apply them in different situations.

4. Recognise that networking is something you do every day

Networking is essential for any professional, but it can also be daunting and frustrating. How do you make meaningful connections, avoid awkwardness, and maintain your contacts? In this article, Dr Anne ter Wal examines different types of networks, and shares some common networking mistakes and how to avoid them.

5. Listen to Yoda when it comes to negative feedback

Negative feedback can be hard to take, but it can also be valuable for learning and improvement. How do you handle negative feedback without getting defensive or discouraged? In this article, Visiting Professor Nelson Phillips draws on the wisdom of Yoda, the legendary Jedi Master from Star Wars, to show how to embrace feedback as a gift, not a threat, and use it to identify and enhance your strengths and weaknesses.

If you want to read more insights from 51�Թ�� Business School experts on management topics such as strategy and leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, finance, economics and public policy, analytics and digital transformation, marketing, health management, and climate change and sustainability, visit the IB Knowledge homepage.

Careers

Leadership

Networking

Knowledge Categories

10 must-reads from 51�Թ�� Business School for summer 2023

Evie Burrows-Taylor — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 15:02:49 +0000

10 must-reads from 51�Թ�� Business School for summer 2023

Evie Burrows-Taylor Fri, 21/07/2023 - 15:02

21 July 2023

Whether you’re looking for inspiration, information or innovation while you lie on the beach, you’ll find it in these 10 books and articles by 51�Թ�� Business School faculty and partners.

Summer is here and it’s a great time to catch up on some reading. Whether you’re interested in the latest trends in technology, management, innovation, education, economics, politics or sustainability, 51�Թ�� Business School has something for you.

Here are 10 books and articles that showcase the expertise and insights of our faculty and partners.

1. Basic Metaverse: How Virtual Worlds Will Change Our Reality and What You Can Do to Unlock Their Potential

If you’re curious about the future of immersive digital environments and how they will transform business, entertainment, education and society, this book is for you. David Shrier, Professor of Practice (AI & Innovation), explains what the Metaverse is, why it matters, and how you can get ready for it.

2. How Chinese Companies are Reinventing Management

China is not only a global economic powerhouse but also a source of management innovation. In this article, recently chosen by Harvard Business Review as one of its 10 must-reads of 2023, George S. Yip, Emeritus Professor of Marketing & Strategy, and his co-authors reveal how Chinese companies are developing new ways of managing talent, strategy, innovation and globalisation. They also offer practical lessons for managers in other countries who want to learn from China’s success.

3. Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy

The intangible economy, which is based on assets such as software, data, design and branding, is reshaping the world. But it also poses major challenges for policymakers, businesses and workers. In this book, Jonathan Haskel, Professor of Economics and member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, and Stian Westlake, Executive Chair of the Economic & Social Research Council, propose a new agenda for addressing these challenges and unlocking the potential of the intangible economy.

4. Growing Green Awareness Gives Eco-Innovation a Competitive Edge

Eco-innovation is not only good for the planet but also for business performance. In this article, Ralf Martin, Associate Professor of Economics, shows how firms that invest in green technologies and practices can gain a competitive advantage in the market. He also discusses the role of policy and regulation in fostering eco-innovation.

5. Co-Pilots: A New Way of Improving Hybrid Teaching for Everyone

Hybrid teaching, which combines online and face-to-face learning, is here to stay. But how can educators make it more effective and engaging for students and teachers alike? In this article, Omar Merlo, Associate Dean (External Relations), and James Eteen, Senior Teaching Fellow, introduce the concept of co-pilots: trained assistants who help instructors deliver hybrid courses. They share their experience of using co-pilots at 51�Թ�� and offer tips for other institutions that want to adopt this approach.

6. Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities: A Study of Fifty Democracies, 1948–2020

How do political parties represent different social groups in democracies? And how does this affect inequality and political stability? In this book, Clara Martínez-Toledano, Assistant Professor of Finance, and her fellow editors provide a comprehensive analysis of political cleavages and social inequalities across 50 democracies over seven decades. They identify four types of cleavages (class-based, religion-based, ethnicity-based and issue-based) and examine their evolution and impact on various aspects of democracy.

7. Antitrust Economics at a Time of Upheaval: Recent Competition Policy Cases on Two Continents

Antitrust economics is a vital field that deals with the regulation of markets and competition. In this book, Tommaso Valletti, Professor of Economics and former Chief Competition Economist at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, and his co-editors bring together leading experts to discuss recent antitrust cases from Europe and North America. They cover topics such as digital platforms, mergers, cartels, and abuse of dominance, and offer insights into the theory and practice of antitrust economics.

8. Health Taxes: Policy and Practice

Health is not only a personal matter but also a major societal concern. But how can governments use fiscal measures to influence health outcomes and behaviours? In this book, Franco Sassi, Professor of International Health Policy & Economics, and his co-editors explore the subject of health taxes, i.e. taxes that target unhealthy behaviours and risks. They examine the positive and negative effects of health taxes, how they can be designed and implemented effectively, and why policymakers across government should care about them. They also offer practical guidance for anyone who wants to understand the potential of such taxes to improve health and wellbeing.

9. Climate Risks: An Investor’s Field Guide to Identification and Assessment

Climate change poses significant risks for investors and financial markets. But how can investors identify and assess these risks and incorporate them into their decision making? In this book, Bob Buhr, Honorary Research Fellow at 51�Թ�� Business School’s Centre for Climate Finance & Investment, provides a practical guide for investors who want to understand and manage climate risks. He covers topics such as physical and transition risks, scenario analysis, carbon pricing, and disclosure standards.

10. 51�Թ�� Business 2023

This is the latest edition of the 51�Թ�� Business School magazine, which showcases the achievements and activities of the School’s community. You can read about the School’s first undergraduate degree, economic policy in a time of plague and war, and consider what climate change really means for business.

Digital Transformation

Knowledge Categories

What Japanese philosophy can teach us about finding purpose in the workplace

Frank Brueck — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 08:20:17 +0000

What Japanese philosophy can teach us about finding purpose in the workplace

Frank Brueck Wed, 05/07/2023 - 08:20

28 June 2023

Adapting leadership styles and organisational culture can help businesses and their employees find purpose – and have a positive impact on the world

The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, climate quitting, fury quitting. These buzzwords can elicit an eyeroll, but they reveal the unpredictable nature of the contemporary job market. Employees increasingly expect employers to make a positive economic, social and environmental impact on the world – and are willing to walk away if they don’t.

This is a positive trend, but how can you and your organisation find purpose in an increasingly complex market? I believe the answer lies in Japanese philosophy.

Finding ikigai

Outside Japan, ikigai, which translates as “your reason for being”, is mainly discussed in the context of personal development. I’ve set out to explore how its principles can be transferred to a business context, looking at how companies can reach a point where they have a purpose and impact society in a positive way – without compromising business success.

So, what does it mean to be an ikigai leader or even an ikigai organisation? According to my model and assessment tool, which look at how closely leadership styles and organisational cultures align with the philosophy, the following four characteristics should be integrated at the same time:

1. What you are good at: knowhow, capabilities, skills, talent
2. What you love to do: passion, motivation
3. What the world needs: positive social and environmental impact, sustainability, corporate responsibility
4. What you need for the market: business acumen, understanding the market forces

Only when all four are incorporated into business life, both for individuals and collectively, can ikigai be reached.

This model has already been applied in the Leonardo Centre on Business for Society and 51�Թ�� College Executive Education’s Sustainability Leadership programme, which was awarded a prize by the Financial Times, 51�Թ��’s Global Online MBA programme, and several leadership workshops and wellness programmes.

Value alignment matters more than ever before

Employees are no longer driven solely by financial motives. According to Deloitte, Gen Z employees value salary less than any other generation; given the choice of a boring job with a high salary or a more interesting role that doesn’t pay as well, Gen Z is fairly evenly split. Reflecting on the ikigai model can help employees better understand where they want to go and whether their organisation is helping them to achieve it, providing a valuable anchor when considering a career move.

Getting closer to a corporate culture based on a united purpose creates a more aligned team. This is all the more important when you consider Gen Z will account for 27 per cent of the workforce by 2025. If businesses want to attract and retain a new generation of talent, they need to demonstrate their commitment to people and the planet through concrete action.

Quitting isn’t always the answer

Often employees discover they can find a sense of purpose in the workplace by changing their organisation themselves. One 51�Թ�� Global Online MBA student said: “For me, the introduction of the concept of ikigai was ground-breaking. For so long, I had chosen to look away and ignore how empty I felt. Today… I am finding purpose right where I am, I understand now that I have full control over my perspective. I am initiating projects at work that bring out my creativity and passion rather than waiting for an opportunity to simply arrive.”

Deciding to make changes to your organisation requires bravery, and for there to be a chance of success, the answers to the following questions should be “Yes”:

Do I have enough motivation and passion to do it?
Does it energise me?
Is it good for the world?
Will the company survive?

Identifying the missing piece in your organisation

At an organisational level, ikigai can provide a guiding light, help you to identify where you need to make changes and what is missing, whether it’s the business model, staffing, organisational structure, vision or the mission. Finding the purpose of the organisation, ensuring staff love what they do and are good at it, needs to be balanced with what the market needs to ensure the business remains profitable and can survive.

So far, only one of the more than 200 organisations that underwent an assessment has achieved an ikigai business model. AimHi provides accessible and engaging online climate training and education, with the aim of empowering everyone to be part of the fight against climate change. What sets the business apart is its passion for making the world a better place coupled with its ability to read and understand the market well.

The first ikigai organisation being a sustainability startup corroborates my original hypothesis: smaller and younger organisations are likely to come closest to achieving ikigai. This seems to be because it’s easier to set up new structures from scratch, while changing an existing organisational culture is possible but requires a longer process.

The search for other ikigai corporations is still on, but my goal is to use this model to help change the way we think about work – both from a leadership, as well as from a corporate cultural perspective – to make finding purpose a reality in business all over the world.

This article draws on “IKIGAI for Leaders and Organisations: The Way to Individual and Collective Purpose and Meaning” by Frank Brueck (51�Թ��)

Leadership

Management

Leonardo Centre on Business for Society

An innovative cross-disciplinary laboratory experimenting with alternative models of enterprise for joint economic and human value

Executing Sustainability Strategies

Knowledge Categories

How businesses are addressing the biodiversity crisis

Maurizio Zollo — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 15:16:09 +0000

How businesses are addressing the biodiversity crisis

Maurizio Zollo Wed, 07/06/2023 - 15:16

7 June 2023

Corporations have played a key role in the world’s biodiversity crisis. Now, some business leaders are recognising this – and making amends

At the end of 2022, countries around the world reached a landmark agreement on biodiversity, acknowledging the scale of the challenge we face. This is important: since 1970, we have seen a 69 per cent decline in wildlife populations, with the WWF highlighting “the double, interlinked emergencies of human-induced climate change and the loss of biodiversity”.

Alongside nations, businesses have a key role in addressing this crisis. Biodiversity loss is inextricably connected to changes in land use, overexploitation and increasing pollution, which corporations undoubtedly play a part in causing. Business leaders are beginning to recognise this and are working to mitigate some of the impacts and trends of biodiversity loss.

Scandinavian companies are more likely to focus their biodiversity efforts on changing their business models

But this is not a simple task. Biodiversity is difficult to map to specific activities, and there is no agreed measurement framework for it. This makes it complex for businesses and regulators to set specific and quantifiable targets for mitigating the biodiversity crisis.

Our new research takes a step towards addressing this issue, exploring how companies are embedding biodiversity into their business models and reporting on it. By analysing 40,000 sustainability initiatives launched over the last two decades by over 6,000 companies across all sectors and directed at the preservation and regeneration of life on land and water (UN Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15), we have distilled insights for driving future nature-positive corporate action.

Philanthropic action vs. business model evolution

We found around half of biodiversity initiatives are philanthropic in nature, comprising donations, funding and communication activities. Although beneficial in supporting nature protection and regeneration action by communities and stakeholders, these are not as impactful as activities targeted at evolving business models to incorporate biodiversity into strategic areas such as R&D and supply chain management.

However, the data shows the proportion of initiatives focused on donations and communication fell from 57 per cent in 2008 to 48 per cent in 2021. This is still high compared with initiatives targeting other emergencies such as pollution and climate change, but it shows businesses are moving in the right direction. The next step will be for corporations to expand and integrate their sustainability strategies to target biodiversity losses more directly.

Walmart, for example, has committed to “placing nature and humanity at the centre of [its] business practices”. As part of this, the company has pledged to help protect, more sustainably manage or restore, at least 50 million acres of land and a million square miles of ocean by 2030. This will have a real, beneficial impact on nature and biodiversity, and will require Walmart to adapt its production and sourcing processes, serving as an example to other global players of how to become a regenerative company.

Regional and sector variations

While there are positive signs emerging from business, we found there are significant variations in how much focus, and what type of focus, companies give to biodiversity depending on their region and sector.

For example, we observed that those in Spain, Portugal and Latin America focus more on biodiversity than those in Scandinavia. However, Scandinavian companies are more likely to focus their biodiversity efforts on changing their business models, so they actively regenerate the natural environment (e.g. through new product development and operational processes) – a potentially more impactful approach.

Furthermore, a cross-sector comparative analysis shows more biodiversity initiatives, and more complexity within those initiatives, in sectors where biodiversity is a more material issue. For example, companies in the utilities, energy and materials sectors focus significantly more on biodiversity issues than those in healthcare and financial services. The former are also more likely to take impactful action through the evolution of their business models.

Implications for businesses

Overall, we found an average decline in the amount of corporate effort to address the biodiversity crisis, in the sense that there were fewer biodiversity actions per sustainability report over time. However, of those biodiversity initiatives, the quality appears to be improving. Less appears to be more, with companies, particularly in certain regions and sectors, moving beyond philanthropic action to focus on nature-positive business models.

A key aspect of this, moving forward, will be finding and harnessing ways to set and monitor biodiversity impact targets. Measurement tools such as the CDP Forest Questionnaire or the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures’ LEAP framework can be helpful. However, given the difficulty of obtaining data from tier-three suppliers, businesses also need to find ways of measuring biodiversity impact across supply chains.

Alongside measurement and reporting models, truly regenerative organisations require leadership to drive cultural change. This can help to build organisational capacity to detect opportunities that benefit both biodiversity and the bottom line. It can also position companies to detect threats from biodiversity losses, develop strategic initiatives to address them, and scale solutions across the value chain. In time, this approach can help businesses to switch from being threats to nature to being key drivers in regenerating the natural environment.

This article draws on findings from “The Evolution of Corporate Behaviour to Tackle Biodiversity Challenges” by Livio Scalvini (51�Թ��) and Maurizio Zollo (51�Թ��) published in collaboration with HSBC

Leonardo Centre on Business for Society

An innovative cross-disciplinary laboratory experimenting with alternative models of enterprise for joint economic and human value

Executing Sustainability Strategies

Knowledge Categories

How leaders can boost biodiversity through business

Pernille Holtedahl — Tue, 30 May 2023 11:09:39 +0000

How leaders can boost biodiversity through business

Pernille Holtedahl Tue, 30/05/2023 - 11:09

30 May 2023

We are facing a biodiversity crisis – but businesses can, and should, help solve it

Our planet is facing “the double, interlinked emergencies of human-induced climate change and the loss of biodiversity”, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. Climate change is high on the corporate agenda, but biodiversity has historically received less attention from business. This is not a viable state of affairs: the financing gap for biodiversity conservation is estimated to be around $600–800 billion, which means private sector investment is crucial in tackling the biodiversity crisis.

Our new research looks into what drives some companies to voluntarily adopt biodiversity actions, and how and to what extent these actions can be scaled up. The full paper includes five case studies of different types of biodiversity action, covering the energy, water, cities, agriculture and insurance sectors.

Here, we summarise our findings in the energy and water sectors, and some of our recommendations for policymakers and businesses.

Biodiversity in the energy sector

Low-carbon energy projects like wind, solar and nuclear all have potential side effects that could exacerbate the biodiversity crisis. Acknowledging this, energy companies often have biodiversity policies, usually as part of a broader ESG strategy. However, these policies tend to lack data to show that they provide a net benefit to biodiversity, and there are strong indications that companies adopt them mainly to maintain licences, improve publicity or reduce reputational risk.

As for specific biodiversity investments in the energy sector, these tend to be a result of the regulatory process; they focus on mitigating adverse biodiversity impacts that are identified as part of an environmental assessment. They also tend to directly benefit energy projects, with biodiversity acting as a secondary benefit.

Climate change is high on the corporate agenda, but biodiversity has historically received less attention from business

For example, in Pakistan, Zephyr Power maintains mangrove forests to reduce coastal erosion. The objective is to protect wind farm infrastructure, but the forests also serve as nurseries for various aquatic species.

Nevertheless, our findings suggest there are clear financial benefits to energy companies working with nature, especially as investments tend to be low compared to overall project costs. Notably, though, we found there were no cases of companies pursuing biodiversity actions at scale as a primary objective, aside from when it was directed by regulation.

Rather, it appears biodiversity is pursued only when it delivers co-benefits or win-win outcomes alongside other objectives. That means regulation is an important driver and strong environmental impact assessment requirements may help to create the conditions for a net-positive impact.

Biodiversity in the water industry

Aquatic bodies support a substantial part of our planet’s biological diversity, but are under significant pressure from stresses including pollution and unsustainable use. Water companies tend to comply with regulation to control these impacts through the use of water treatment plants.

However, nature-based approaches – primarily planting and maintaining forests – are gaining popularity, thanks to their cost-effectiveness and co-benefits such as improved air quality, climate change mitigation, and protection of water supplies and infrastructure.

Accessing capital markets through green bonds offers a way to finance the acquisition of forested land. Green bonds allow funds to be raised quickly, provide a diversified investor base, and offer pro-environmental signalling that can lead to a green premium from investors.

Biodiversity is pursued only when it delivers co-benefits or win-win outcomes alongside other objectives

In the US, Central Arkansas Water used this approach, issuing a $31.8 million green bond in 2020. The proceeds went towards acquiring around 4,500 acres of forested land, with the remainder used to upgrade the existing water treatment infrastructure.

The investment is expected to increase both the quality and quantity of available water, securing supply and lowering treatment costs, with biodiversity improvements emerging as a secondary benefit. This shows that biodiversity enhancements can be an important co-benefit of cost-effective green infrastructure approaches.

Recommendations for policymakers and business

Overall, our case studies indicate that most corporations will not act on their own to preserve or improve biodiversity at the scale required to address the biodiversity crisis. This means policymakers need to put in place more stringent regulation and incentives to drive corporate action.

Critically, though, our case studies do show that companies are more likely to take relevant, impactful action when biodiversity impacts occur alongside co-benefits. For example, security of supply emerges as a primary driver of action in two of the five cases; those that rely directly on a healthy natural environment for their products have a clearer incentive to invest.

This offers a key avenue for policymakers, both to target incentives where they are known to work, and to identify biodiversity outcomes that require different incentives. On top of this, issues of scale and coordination, and the interconnectivity of large ecosystems, make it difficult for corporations to act individually – further pointing to a coordinating and catalytic role for policymakers.

The financing gap for biodiversity conservation is estimated to be around USD 600–800 billion

For companies themselves, we observe that biodiversity actions tend to be hidden among a range of objectives and aims. Addressing this by improving data measurement, sharing findings openly with partners, and incorporating findings into corporate decision processes could help to scale biodiversity action across the private sector.

Equally, short-termism in corporate management mindsets is a real challenge. Biodiversity investing can have prolonged and uncertain impact on timelines and may look more expensive upfront, but can be profitable in the longer term. Strategic long-term planning could have real benefits both for biodiversity and for companies’ bottom lines.

This article draws on findings from "Corporate Action on Biodiversity: An Exploration of Drivers", an independent expert analysis by Pernille Holtedahl, Alex Köberle and Iva Koci at 51�Թ�� Business School’s Centre for Climate Finance & Investment, with support from Impax Asset Management

Monthly newsletter

Receive the latest insights from 51�Թ�� Business School

Agribusiness is not ready for the sudden shocks of climate change

Climate change models suggest temperatures will gradually rise, but the agriculture sector is not prepared for the acute risk of extreme weather events

MSc Climate Change, Management & Finance

MSc Climate Change, Management & Finance is a one-year programme that gives graduates the interdisciplinary skills required in business on issues relating to climate change and sustainability.