The business case for a nature- positive future (& how tech can make it happen faster)
This writeup was co-authored by Emily Birch, Founder of WildSight.
As some governments backslide on their climate commitments, the private sector is increasingly recognizing nature loss as an unavoidable financial risk. From supply chain disruptions to regulatory scrutiny and shifting consumer expectations, businesses can no longer afford to ignore the economic consequences of environmental degradation.
Subsequently, a ‘nature-positive’ mindset is becoming essential for building long-term business resilience. By investing in nature, businesses can create value, mitigate risks, and unlock new growth opportunities. As technology evolves, new tools and solutions are emerging to support this shift, particularly in the form of nature tech (which we define as anything that accelerates and scales the transition to a nature-positive future).
A market shift: Norway’s $1.6 trillion wake-up call
One of the strongest market signals yet that nature is an economic asset has come from Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. By placing 96% of its $1.6 trillion portfolio under natural capital risk assessment, it has made it clear that financial success depends on nature’s health. This shift highlights the urgency for businesses to integrate nature into their decision-making, or risk getting left behind.
Watch the playback of this session
Nature tech is emerging as a critical enabler for the nature-positive transition, helping organizations build climate resilience through innovations in monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV), predictive modeling, regenerative interventions, and natural capital monetization. As demand for these solutions surges, nature-positive businesses have a unique opportunity to align their operations with both financial and environmental sustainability.
To explore these trends in more detail, the Nature Tech Collective hosted a session with Emily Birch, founder of WildSight: We discussed the financial opportunities tied to embracing a nature-positive outlook, how technology can unlock value in nature-based initiatives, and why acting swiftly to invest in nature is more critical than ever for long-term business success.
What is a nature-positive future?
A nature-positive future means we not only halt the damage being done to nature but actively work to restore it on a global scale. It's not just an idealistic vision, it's an existential necessity. This transition is also urgent, as nature loss threatens economies and livelihoods. Over half of global GDP, around $44 trillion, is moderately or highly dependent on nature, making its protection essential for economic stability.
At the core of this transformation is a fundamental shift in how we value nature in decision-making processes. From investing and designing cities to growing food and running businesses, achieving a nature-positive future requires rethinking every aspect of our current business, social and economic systems.
Costa Rica’s nature-positive approach: Integrating nature’s value into energy decisions
When Costa Rica needed to expand its power system, it recognized the environmental trade-offs of hydropower, such as damaging river ecosystems and displacing communities. Instead of building more dams, Costa Rica invested in wind, solar, and geothermal energy, meeting its growing energy demands without the environmental costs of traditional hydropower. By making nature a central consideration in every key decision, Costa Rica sets a powerful example, illustrating how nature’s value can be factored into decision-making.
But isn’t human extraction of nature unavoidable?
Our economies and industries rely on natural resources for everything from raw materials to medicine. But the key isn’t whether we extract; it’s about how we do it. Take the pharmaceutical industry: We’ll always need nature for essential materials like plant-based medicines. But the focus shouldn’t be on stopping extraction altogether, it should be on making extraction regenerative instead of destructive. In other words, how can we ensure the process of sourcing natural ingredients or raw materials helps restore ecosystems rather than deplete them?
This is where the challenge lies. Today’s economic systems are built on models that exclude the true value of nature. Financial systems don’t account for the environmental damage caused by extraction, and many large corporations don’t factor the long-term health of the land or ecosystems they rely on into their balance sheets.
But what would it look like if they did? Imagine if a pharmaceutical company had to assess not only the cost of extracting raw materials but also the environmental and social risks associated with it. What if they had to value the health of the land from which they extract, and incorporate the benefits of regenerative practices into their financial planning?
By making nature’s value visible in financial terms, we could move closer to a system where extraction is balanced with restoration, creating both economic and ecological value in the process.
Why businesses everywhere should care about the nature-positive transition
The need for businesses to embrace a nature-positive future is driven by both real and immediate risks as well as significant opportunity. Two aspects in particular are compelling organizations to rethink their current approach to ‘business as usual’:
1. Risks are real and immediate
The nature crisis is no longer just an environmental concern, it’s a growing economic threat. From supply chain disruptions to reputational damage and regulatory pressure, businesses are facing tangible risks as a result of environmental degradation. Invasive species, for example, are causing billions in crop damage, while climate-related events threaten infrastructure and resources.
Companies failing to account for these risks are likely to face serious consequences. Nestlé saw their stocks fall after criticism over sourcing palm oil from deforested areas, while mining companies have seen stock prices fall due to stricter environmental regulations. These are just a few examples of how nature loss directly impacts the bottom line.
As environmental risks continue to materialize, businesses must act to mitigate them, or risk financial instability.
2. Growth opportunities through nature-positive practices
Rather than viewing nature positivity as a cost or burden, forward-thinking companies see it as a chance to unlock new revenue streams, build customer loyalty, and enhance brand reputation.
Take Unilever: After shifting to plant-based products, they generated over $1.5 billion in annual sales, a clear indicator that aligning with nature positive practices can attract new markets, and consumers willing to pay a premium for sustainable products.
With growing frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Science Based Targets Network, businesses now have more tools at their disposal to formalize and measure their nature positive commitments. Companies that act now will be better positioned to thrive in this evolving marketplace.
Check out this bitesize video from WildSight for more on this topic:
Nature tech exists to accelerate the nature-positive transition
Through technologies like camera traps, bioacoustics, nature-monitoring drones, satellites, AI and more, nature tech better enables companies to track and act on nature-related risks and opportunities. Technology serves here not just as an enabler, but as a critical catalyst for achieving a sustainable and resilient future for both people and nature.
The Nature Tech Collective’s 5M Framework helps to frame the role of nature tech in the nature-positive transition in a clear way. As we continue to explore the path towards a nature-positive future, it's clear the role of Nature Tech is central to making this vision a reality. With these tools, we can bridge the gap between ambition and action, making nature-positive decisions both practical and profitable.
Understanding The 5M Framework ~ by the Nature Tech Collective
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As market demand shifts towards more sustainable and nature positive practices, businesses are facing increasing pressure to align their practices with environmental goals. Nature tech tools help companies respond to this pressure by monitoring environmental impacts, tracking progress, and providing data that drives better decision-making and accountability. This technology enables businesses to stay ahead of the curve, ensuring they meet both market expectations and evolving regulatory requirements.
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To protect nature, we need to understand it. Nature tech provides essential tools for measuring and monitoring biodiversity and ecosystems. This includes technologies such as smart sensor networks to track species movement, bioacoustics to listen to pollinator activity, satellites and drones to monitor land use changes, and environmental DNA sampling to track biodiversity across vast landscapes. Without these tools, it would be difficult to assess the true state of nature, let alone make decisions to protect or restore it.
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Data is only useful if it can be translated into actionable insights. Nature tech enables advanced modeling through AI-driven simulations and digital twins, which can predict future changes in ecosystems, identify areas at risk, and simulate the impacts of various interventions. This capability is crucial for governments, businesses, and NGOs to make informed, forward-thinking decisions about where and how to intervene in nature, as well as how to balance economic, social, and environmental needs.
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Nature tech also plays a vital role in driving material change by enabling practical, real-world interventions. Whether it's farm management systems that support regenerative agriculture, drone-assisted reforestation to restore habitats, or sustainable land use tools, these technologies help put plans into action. In this sense, nature tech can help facilitate large-scale ecological restoration, efficient land management, and sustainable resource extraction, ensuring that nature positive actions lead to lasting, measurable improvements.
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This involves turning nature into a measurable economic asset. Through natural capital accounting, businesses and governments can quantify the economic value of ecosystems and biodiversity. This helps incentivize nature positive behaviors by creating biodiversity credits, financial rewards for ecosystem restoration, and other market-based tools that drive sustainable practices. Nature tech enables the integration of these economic models, helping to unlock new revenue streams while ensuring the protection of natural resources.
Case study: Volkswagen turns to nature tech to manage environmental impact
Volkswagen, aiming for net carbon neutrality by 2050, is integrating biodiversity considerations into its sustainability strategy. Volkswagen partnered with Nala Earth, a nature tech firm offering a holistic platform for corporate nature management. Together, they sought to evaluate the state of nature across all of Volkswagen’s production sites and test a methodology to identify nature hotspots - production sites where impact mitigation and nature restoration efforts are needed urgently.
Using 12+ science-based indicators, Nala Earth’s platform measured key environmental variables, including land quality, water availability, water quality, biodiversity intactness, and biodiversity importance. These indicators were contextualised to Volkswagen’s business needs and regulatory obligations:
Platform screenshot from Nala Earth
Nala Earth’s platform was able to recognize production sites with a concerning state of nature and their prioritization methodology successfully identified nature hotspots within Volkswagen’s operations. This clarity helped Volkswagen with their nature-related reporting and supported their efforts to prioritize future mitigation and restoration efforts, optimising the allocation of resources to areas with the greatest potential for impact
Navigating trade-offs in the nature-positive transition
Ultimately, the nature-positive transition is complex and will always involve a number of trade offs: For example, mining is necessary for industries like construction, but traditional practices can lead to ecosystem degradation. However, with a truly nature-positive approach, businesses can rethink extraction methods to restore and regenerate ecosystems after resource extraction.
A shift in mindset is required. Instead of seeing business and nature as opposing forces, companies need to see how they can work together to create mutually beneficial outcomes. Through innovation, policy incentives, and collaboration, businesses can evolve toward regenerative models that balance economic growth with environmental preservation.
The nature-positive transition is no longer just a theoretical discussion, it’s a financial reality. Norway’s $1.6 trillion wealth fund has made it clear that natural capital matters in investment decisions, and other major players will follow. This shift presents a huge opportunity for nature tech innovators to develop the solutions that businesses and investors will increasingly rely on.
The question now is: How do we scale these innovations fast enough to meet the demand?
