16 January 2023
Press Release
For immediate release
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WWF’s new Biodiversity Risk Filter helps companies tackle nature-related risks
- New WWF tool uses data from 50 organisations including NASA, the World Bank and IUCN to help investors and companies understand the risks they face from biodiversity loss
- When used on a representative investor portfolio, the tool finds that most portfolio companies have a medium or high exposure to biodiversity-related risks
Today at the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, WWF is launching a new tool to help companies and investors better understand their impacts and dependencies on nature.
WWF’s Biodiversity Risk Filter is a free to use, web-based tool that helps businesses identify and reduce biodiversity-related risks across their own operations, their value chains and investments.
Using 50 data sets from NASA, IUCN, the World Bank and many other sources, it breaks down complex biodiversity information to give decision makers practical information to assess biodiversity-related risks across all industries and in all countries.
Accompanying the tool, WWF launched a report ’Tackling Biodiversity Risk’ where they applied the Biodiversity Risk Filter methodology to 600 companies listed on the MSCI ACWI index (1). The report finds that the vast majority of the portfolio companies have a medium or high exposure to biodiversity-related risks.
Karen Ellis, WWF’s Chief Economist said: “With nature in freefall, businesses and investors in all sectors are exposed to increasing biodiversity-related risks. WWF’s new Biodiversity Risk Filter is powerful new tool that gives decision makers a clear picture of biodiversity risks so they can make better choices for their companies and, at the same time, help protect and restore nature.”
Rebekah Church, WWF’s Global Biodiversity Stewardship Lead said: “Increasingly, companies and financial institutions recognise the business case for tackling biodiversity loss, but many simply do not know where to start. Understanding biodiversity-related business risks is the first step towards being able to tackle them and a prerequisite to setting relevant biodiversity targets, something many companies are likely to look at during this year following the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework. This tool helps them to map and assess biodiversity-related risks, enabling them to prioritise investments in areas that will make the most impact in mitigating their risks,”
According to the World Economic Forum, more than 50 percent of global GDP, or US$44 trillion, is highly or moderately dependent on nature and its services and ultimately our whole economy and very survival is dependent on natural ecosystems.
Nature loss is not only an ecological issue, but also an economic issue impacting companies and financial institutions. In December 2022, 330 business and financial institutions with combined revenues of more than US$1.5 trillion called on world leaders at the Montreal Biodiversity Conference (COP-15) to adopt mandatory requirements for all large businesses to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity by 2030.
However, until now, understanding biodiversity-related risks and opportunities along the value chain and across different locations has been one of the most challenging tasks for companies and financial institutions striving to develop nature-positive business models.
WWF with Climate & Company have published guidance on how the risk filter can be applied to a portfolio of companies and presents a case study on a representative investor portfolio.
Both risk filter tools help the private sector develop sustainable business operations and investments and support the alignment of companies’ and financial institutions’ sustainability commitments and engagement with global frameworks including the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
WWF and Climate & Company also conducted a case study on a representative investor portfolio of listed companies. The results from the case study show most of the portfolio companies have a medium or high exposure to biodiversity-related risks. The case study also demonstrates that with the help of the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter tool and methodological guidance, companies and financial institutions can start to analyse and identify potential biodiversity-related risk hotspots to prioritise for action.
The Biodiversity Risk Filter tool launches at a time when there is a growing consensus that we not only need to halt the ongoing destruction of the natural world, but also shift our economies and societies towards ones that exist in harmony with nature.
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
- MSCI ACWI is the Morgan Stanley Capital International - All Country World Index which covers the stocks of nearly 3,000 companies from 23 developed countries and 25 emerging markets - approximately 85% of the global investable equity opportunity set.
About the Biodiversity Risk Filter
The Biodiversity Risk Filter uses over 50 data layers that include information on species and ecosystems, protected areas, and the most important pressures on biodiversity such as deforestation, habitat destruction, pollution, and land use change for agriculture. The data has been provided by NASA, IUCN, the World Bank, IBAT, UNEP-WCMC, ENCORE, RepRisk, FAO, and WWF among many others. It is the first ever platform that brings together such a diverse range of data on biodiversity-related risks. This tool is built on the success of the long-standing WWF Water Risk Filter.
The biodiversity and water risk filter tools are now available on the WWF Risk Filter Suite. While the Biodiversity Risk Filter provides general high-level assessment of biodiversity-related risks, the Water Risk Filter provides a more in-depth assessment of water-related risks (including operational risk assessment, higher resolution datasets and scenario risk assessment).
About the WWF Risk Filters Suite:
- This is a free, single log-in, platform for both the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter and Water Risk Filter tools that covers all industry sectors and uses global datasets for full geographic coverage.
- Companies and financial institutions can upload and manage their data in a central online platform and perform their biodiversity and water risk analyses from there.
- Easy to use and customised to companies' unique contexts.
- The risk filter tools are in alignment with frameworks such as Science Based Targets Network for Nature (SBTN) and Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). More specifically, these tools complement the SBTN five-step process by helping companies understand location-specific risks and prioritise where and how to act, and TNFD by providing assessment for biodiversity- and water-related risks and opportunities in alignment with TNFD’s guiding principles and disclosure recommendations.
The WWF Risk Filter Suite can be accessed at https://riskfilter.org/
About the Biodiversity Risk Filter methodology documentation
This document describes the underlying methodology of the WWF Biodiversity Risk Filter tool, including a description of the risk assessment framework, underlying structure, data and limitations.
In addition, it includes three theoretical chapters that have not been included in the WWF BRF tool at this point: Guidance A, B and C. Guidance A and B provide support for companies and financial institutions on collecting the required input data for the WWF BRF and WRF Assess Module. Guidance A supports financial institutions with collecting location-specific proxy data on companies’ operational sites. Guidance B supports companies and financial institutions with collecting location-specific proxy data on supply chains. Guidance C, on the other hand, provides support for financial institutions on how the location-specific output data from the WWF BRF and WRF Assess Module can be further processed and aggregated to the company and portfolio-level.
The methodology documentation is available at: BiodiversityRiskFilter_Methodology.pdf (kettufy.io)
About the report “Tackling Biodiversity Risk” (Case Study)
With the support of the methodological guidance, WWF and Climate & Company have applied the BRF methodology to more than 600 companies listed on the MSCI ACWI index, a global index of listed companies, covering 24 industry sectors. The results from the case study shows that the vast majority of the portfolio companies have a medium or high exposure towards biodiversity-related risks. The case study also demonstrates that with the help of the WWF BRF tool and methodological guidance, financial institutions can start to analyse and identify potential biodiversity-related risk within a broad portfolio of companies and that sufficient company and biodiversity data is available to conduct a comprehensive biodiversity risk analysis.
The report “Tackling Biodiversity Risks” including its case study on the MSCI ACWI index can be accessed at:
For media queries please contact Mike Eames at meames@wwf.org.uk or press@wwf.org.uk