Previous version: Biodiversity in Ontario’s business sector – 2015

Biodiversity is intricately linked to our  economy and society. The vision of the Ontario Biodiversity Strategy (OBS) is that everyone plays a role in conserving biodiversity through collective efforts across diverse groups and approaches. To help measure progress on this goal, the renewed OBS includes Target 1 – By 2025, sectors have developed action plans in support of the OBS and by 2030 those plans are being implemented. Actions under this target support the development and implementation of plans across all levels of government, business, not-for-profit, industry and more.

Government policies and programs provide a strong framework for biodiversity conservation and the participation from all sectors and individuals is what will lead to success. Ontario’s renewed Biodiversity Strategy identifies the need to empower all people to value, respect and take steps to conserve, recover and sustainably manage biodiversity (OBS 2023).

There is a critical link identified between society, the economy and the natural environment (TEEB 2012). Many business leaders have recognized that to remain competitive, especially in challenging economic times, biodiversity issues must be factored into their operations. Some business leaders are making biodiversity a priority by factoring biodiversity management into their corporate planning and mainstreaming biodiversity into their decision-making process. In addition, the public are becoming increasingly aware of the impact their daily lifestyle choices are having on the natural environment both directly and indirectly through issues such as increasing loss of habitat and green space and climate change, and many are choosing to do business with those that align with their values (CPA Ontario 2023).

This indicator examines the extent to which Ontario companies have integrated biodiversity in their corporate planning and reporting.

Previously assessed in the SOBR 2015 report, the same methods were used in this update. A list of the top 70 revenue earning businesses in Ontario in 2019 was reviewed and assessed to determine which have integrated biodiversity in their corporate planning and reporting. Businesses were categorized into four main sectors: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary (Table 1) (Mayda 2012).

Table 1. Industries used to study biodiversity integration into all sectors of business in Ontario.

The four sectors were further categorized into industries identified in Statistics Canada’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS 2012) to produce a sector categorization (Table 2).

Within each industry, the five most profitable publicly traded and private companies in Canada, as identified by the Globe and Mail’s Top 1000 Business Report, were included in the analysis. The selected companies either had headquarters, operations, and/or sold products in Ontario, considering the interconnectedness and complexity of business supply chains. We examined each company’s publicly available annual corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports, as well as their websites, using keyword searches for terms such as biodiversity, biological diversity, ecosystem, nature, and sustainability.

The framework used to evaluate these companies was based on criteria developed for studying the integration of biodiversity into the business sector, as outlined in the previous SOBR indicator Biodiversity in Ontario’s business sector (2015) [link to be included]. This evaluative model drew on several studies including: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Business and Enterprise (TEEB 2012), The Ecosystem Services Benchmark: A guidance document (Grigg et al. 2009), Tread lightly: Biodiversity and ecosystem services risk and opportunity management within the extractive industry (Grigg et al. 2011), and Linking shareholder and natural value: Managing biodiversity and ecosystem services risk in companies with an agricultural supply chain (Grigg et al. 2009).

In this analysis, the degree to which the company is concerned with biodiversity was categorized into one of five successive categories (Table 2). Further details related to the analysis can be found in the 2014 companion technical report (Potter et al. 2014).

Table 2: Stages of biodiversity concern for companies. See Potter et al. 2014 for list of criteria.

Related Theme(s)

• Conservation Response

Web Links:

Biodiversity: It’s in our Nature – Ontario Government Plan to Conserve Biodiversity 2012-2020 http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/c8f28fef

Canadian Business and Biodiversity Council http://www.businessbiodiversity.ca/

CPA Ontario; Why sustainability is good business https://assets.cpaontario.ca/sustainability/pdfs/why_sustainability_is_good_business.pdf

Fauna and Flora International http://www.fauna-flora.org/

Forest Footprint Disclosure Project www.forestdisclosure.com

Global Reporting Initiative www.globalreporting.org

Halton Region – A Biodiversity Strategy for the Halton Regional Forests http://www.halton.ca/cms/One.aspx?portalId=8310&pageId=9819

ICMM Good Practice Guidance for Mining and Biodiversity www.icmm.com

Integrated Biodiversity Tool www.ibatforbusiness.org/

IPIECA/API Oil and Gas Industry Guidance on Voluntary Sustainability Reporting www.ipieca.org

Ontario Power Generation – Biodiversity http://www.opg.com/about/environment/Pages/environment.aspx

The Ontario Biodiversity Council www.ontariobiodiversitycouncil.ca

The Keystone Centre www.keystone.org

The Stewardship Network of Ontario Stewardship Strategy 2013 http://stewardshipnetwork.ca/files/2012/03/SNO-Stewardship-Strategy-May-2013.pdf

Natural Value Initiative http://www.naturalvalueinitiative.org/

Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials www.rsb.org

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil www.rspo.org

Royal Ontario Museum http://www.rom.on.ca/nature

Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops www.stewardshipindex.org

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Initiative http://www.teebweb.org/

Water Footprint Network www.waterfootprint.org

WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative www.wbcsdcement.org

References:

Grigg, A., M. Harper, and S. Verbunt. 2011. Tread lightly: biodiversity and ecosystem services risk and opportunity management within the extractive industry. The Natural Value Initiative. [Available at: http://www.naturalvalueinitiative.org/download/documents/Publications/NVI%20Extractive%20Report%20Executive%20Summary.pdf ]

Grigg, A., Z. Cullen, J. Foxall, L. Crosbie, L. Jamison, and R. Brito. 2009. The ecosystem services benchmark. Fauna & Flora International, United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative and Fundacao Getulio Vargas – FGV. [Available at: http://www.naturalvalueinitiative.org/download/documents /Publications/EcoSysBenchmark.pdf]

Grigg, A., Z. Cullen, J. Foxall, and R. Strumpf. 2009. Linking shareholder and natural value. Managing biodiversity and ecosystem services risk in companies with an agricultural supply chain. Fauna and Flora International, United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative and Fundacao Getulio Vargas – FGV. [Available at: http://www.naturalvalueinitiative.org/download/documents/Publications/LSNV_ Oct09.pdf]

Ontario Biodiversity Council. 2011. Ontario’s biodiversity strategy, 2011: renewing our commitment to protecting what sustains us. Ontario Biodiversity Council, Peterborough, ON.

Ontario’s Biodiversity Council. 2023.Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy 2023-2030: Summary. Ontario Biodiversity Council, Peterborough, ON.

Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy (OBS). 2005. Ontario’s biodiversity strategy, 2005: protecting what sustains us. Queen’s Printer for Ontario, Peterborough, ON [Available at: http://snobeanobc.com/OBC2015/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/OBS_2005.pdf].

Ontario Biodiversity Council. 2020. State of Ontario’s Biodiversity. Ontario Biodiversity Council, Peterborough, Ontario. [Available at: https://sobr.ca/wp-content/uploads/state-of-biodiversity-report-E-FINAL-aoda-with-links-and-correction-1.pdf]

Mayda, C. 2013. A regional geography of the United States and Canada: toward a sustainable future. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, MD.

Potter, K., A. Zohar and T. McIntosh. 2014. An evaluation of the integration of biodiversity into business in Ontario. State of Ontario’s Biodiversity Technical Report Series, Report #SOBTR-02.

Statistics Canada. 2012. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Canada. [Available at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/12-501-x/12-501-x2012001-eng.pdf]

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). 2012. The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity in business and enterprise. Edited by Joshua Bishop. Earthscan, London and New York. [Available at: http://www.teebweb.org/publication/the-economics-of-ecosystems-and-biodiversity-teeb-in-business-and-enterprise/]

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). 2010. The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity report for business – executive summary [Available at: http://www.teebweb.org/media/2012/01/TEEB-For-Business.pdf].

The Globe and Mail. (25 June 2014). Canada’s top companies by industry. [Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/top-1000/rankings/canadas-top-companies-by-industry/article19344470/]

The Globe and Mail. (27 June 2013). Top 1000: Exclusive rankings of Canada’s most profitable companies. [Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/top-1000/top-1000/article12829649/#dashboard/follows/]

The Globe and Mail. (26 April 2019). Top 1000: Report on Business magazine’s exclusive ranking of Canada’s largest companies. [available at: The Top 1000: Our annual ranking of Canada’s largest companies – The Globe and Mail]

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