COMPANIES SCALE REGENERATION
Business Coalitions Driving Biodiversity-Positive Food Systems Biodiversity is fundamental to global food security, yet agriculture, the sector that depends most on it, is also the biggest driver of ecosystem degradation. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) works to address this contradiction by mobilizing leading companies to embed biodiversity and regenerative farming within global food and land use systems. Through policy advocacy, business platforms, and collaborative initiatives, WBCSD aims to reduce agriculture’s ecological footprint while strengthening resilience and long-term food security. One example is One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B), a cross-sector coalition advancing regenerative agriculture and supporting enabling regulatory frameworks. By engaging global actors including European companies with extensive international operations, OP2B demonstrates how private sector leadership can influence policy, scale regenerative practices, and create biodiversity-positive supply chains.
The Biodiversity–Food Systems Challenge
—
Agricultural expansion and unsustainable production systems are the leading drivers of biodiversity loss, undermining ecosystem services like pollination and carbon sequestration valued by the OECD at an estimated USD 125–140 trillion annually. Yet, conventional agricultural models continue to prioritize short-term productivity relying on chemical inputs and land expansion, and being responsible for 70% of biodiversity loss globally. For companies operating across global value chains, this creates profound risks. Deforestation, soil depletion, and biodiversity loss weaken supply chain resilience, increase exposure to climate shocks, and undermine long-term market stability. At the same time, growing awareness of the immense natural capital, alongside growing societal pressure for climate-positive environmentally friendly approaches, is pushing companies to take stronger action to protect and use ecosystems sustainably. However, regenerative agriculture requires balancing short-term financial risks with long-term gains. Farmers often struggle to adopt these practices due to the high upfront costs and a long payback periods, with profitability influenced by an increasing number of variables.
Collaborative Business Partnerships for Regenerative Agriculture
—
WBCSD advances large-scale, biodiversity-positive transformation of food systems by working through global coalitions and multi-stakeholder partnerships. These platforms bring together companies, governments, science, finance, and civil society to address barriers, share precompetitive knowledge, and co-design metrics that track biodiversity, climate, and livelihood outcomes. By blending corporate, public, and development finance, they de-risk projects, unlock investment at scale, and support more efficient production and consumption with more diverse markets.
Flagship partnerships illustrate this approach: Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes (AARL): A groundbreaking model of multi-stakeholder action on regenerative agriculture at landscape level. This Action Agenda is working to unlock the transition to regenerative landscapes at scale by ensuring transparency on existing efforts on regenerative agriculture worldwide, connecting key players, and helping catalyze investments in agricultural landscapes. This flagship initiative, launched by the COP28 Presidency, the WBCSD, and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), with support from the UN Climate Change High Level Champions, brings together farmers, agribusinesses, financiers,
KEY TERMS Blended finance: The combination of public, private, and developmental capital to de-risk investment and mobilize large-scale funding.
Measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV): Standardized systems for tracking environmental, social, and economic outcomes, critical for investor confidence and outcome-based incentives.
Learn more about WBCSD’s international cross-sectoral, action-oriented business coalition
Off-taker agreements: Long-term purchase commitments from buyers that provide reliable market demand and financial security for farmers adopting regenerative practices.