Influencing business practices for nature and people
Slides for a civil society strategy workshopPlease feel free to edit and use these slides as you need. Do share with us how they have helped and if you have any suggestions for improvements to Nadine at biobiz@iucn.org
1. Individually, take several minutes to:1. Think about your main learning objective for the session 2. Write on a post-it note
Your name Your organisation and role Your experience with business so far (summary) And what makes you unique! (especially if the group does not know each
other well)
2. In plenary, take one minute each to share your answers
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Facilitation notes – we recommend allowing plenty of time for this check-in exercise to understand expectations and also experiences of your colleagues that you may not already be aware of. Plan for 30 minutes.
4
Our approach
• Peer-exchange – build on existing experiences in the region• Active learning – not passive, create opportunities to learn directly• Build up the collective knowledge base – capture new knowledge
Presenter
Presentation Notes
These principles are based on those for successful adult learning. Feel free to align these with your own organisation’s approach.
5
3 pillars for designing your business engagement plan
Business engagement action
plan
Under-stand
business in your context
Design your
approach
Be clear on the change
you want to see
Presenter
Presentation Notes
As set out in the BioBiz resource guide, before taking action, it’s important to do your homework, and understand your situation, be clear on the change you want to see and then design your approach. This presentation focuses on teh first pillar – understanding why influencing business is important and give ideas for exercises to explore business in your context.
6
Agenda
1. Introductions2. Why do we need to engage business? (presentation)3. What is the situation in your country with regards to business and
sustainable development? (panel discussion)4. What is happening with respect to business in your landscape?
(participatory drawing exercise)
7
Discussion: House rules
• Let’s collectively put together our “house rules”– For example, phones on silent and put away, etc.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Facilitator’s instructions: Ask participants to think of what should be the ‘house rules’ for the coming two days – such as phones on silent and put away, ‘what is being said in the room, stays in the room’, etc. Write these up on a flipchart and stick it on the wall, that it will be visible during the 2 days of the training. Some example:2 ears, 1 mouth. Listen, don’t judge Be curious – ask why (you don’t have to wait for me to ask that) Why do we have a difference in views? Why is it important to us? THINK before engaging. Give feedback as a gift. Interested in advancing not about scoring points Time: 10 minutes
8
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE
CONTEXT 1: PRESENTATION ON WHAT DO WE MEAN BY BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT IN OUR COUNTRY
9
Why should business care about natural capital?
9
Financial performance is irrelevant on a dead planet
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Business as usual is no longer possible. Our ‘take-make-dispose’ way of consuming is no longer possible. By destroying our natural world and its resources, we are destroying the critical foundations of our own survival. We are going to see how business is part of the problem but also part of the solution.
10
Business depends on & impacts natural capital
10
1
1. All businesses impact and depend upon natural capital.
2. This relationship delivers costs and benefits back to themselves and to society.
3. These in turn lead to risks and opportunities to the business
3
2
Source: Natural Capital Protocol
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Again, coming back to this idea of interconnectedness. Because it’s all interconnected. What the example shows is that natural, social and economic issues are fundamentally interconnected and cannot be separated from one another. 1. All businesses impact and depend upon natural capital in some way. So those stocks and those flows we were talking about earlier, are either used by businesses and are very important to them, or they are impacted (positively or negatively!) by business activities. 2. These impacts and dependencies translate to costs and benefits, to both businesses and society. 3. These in turn lead to risks and opportunities to the business But this isn’t just theory and a nice diagram, these impacts and dependencies have the potential to affect businesses in a real way, and we’re seeing that right now.
This is from World Economic Forum’s global risks report. We can see that there’s been a complete shift of risks from 10 years ago. You can see that nearly just 10 years ago, none of the top risks by likelihood or impact fell under the umbrella of “environmental”. Come back to today, and now, since 2020, all of the top 5 risks in terms of likelihood are environmental and 3 of them are environmental in terms of impact. Companies are increasingly facing natural capital related risks. More than ever, they are having to be able to understand, manage and mitigate their natural capital impacts and dependencies. Behind this nice looking graph, there are many concrete examples of businesses being impacted by these risks and are in fact increasingly being impacted by them. We are also receiving more than ever invoices from nature. The latest example could be that of the devastating fires across Australia. WEF’s Global Risks Report 2019 is published against a backdrop of worrying geopolitical and geo-economic tensions.� In years gone by, sustainability issues have sometimes taken business by surprise and companies have paid the cost. Companies are increasingly being impacted by the changing risk landscape discussed earlier. The Protocol highlights key types / categories of risks and opportunities: (– refer to p. 18 of the Protocol).
12
The global ecosystem challenge12
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This chart sums up the challenge of sustainable development: meeting human demands within the ecological limits of the planet. It is a snapshot showing how different countries perform according to the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) and Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint. In countries to the left of the vertical line marking a score of less than 0.8 on the HDI, a high level of development, as defined by UNDP, has not been attained. Countries above the horizontal dotted line and to the right of the vertical line have achieved a high level of development but place more demand on nature than could be sustained if everyone in the world lived this way. In order to move toward a sustainable future the world will need to address all dimensions of this chart – the concepts of success and progress, the biocapacity available per person, as well as helping countries either improve their levels of development or reduce their ecological impact (several countries face both challenges
13
Why engage with business?
“…only through working together can businesses, government and civil society build trust and understanding so as to create mechanisms to address environmental challenges in Africa”.
“Identify, develop, share and mainstream information and best practices … such as the full application of mitigation hierarchy so as to allow businesses to seize opportunities and manage risk for the benefit of society as a whole.”
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This example is taken from the Pan-African Business and Biodiversity Forum, but you can replace this with a quote from a relevant event/publication.
14
The nature of corporate-CSO engagement is changing
Source: Network for Business Sustainability (2013) “Sustainability through Partnerships. A Guide for Executives”
Campaigning
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Facilitator’s instructions: Explain what we understand under business engagement in this trajectory. It includes various ways to influence business practices, from campaigning to enterprise development. This is a broader definition than what people might be used to (some people would only think engagement starts at dialogue and goes from there to the right). It is important to keep this definition in mind. Time: 2 minutes
15
Any questions or comments?
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Pause here to see if there are any comments from participants.
16FOR 15 MINUTES
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Don’t forget a coffee break!
17
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE
CONTEXT 2: PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN DELIVERING GREEN GROWTH
18
While you are listening…
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Over the next two sessions, a series of speakers will help add their part of the situation to the bigger picture. As you listen, you can use the form on page 2 to help think how what you hear applies to your particular situation, as well as track specific questions that you’d like to ask. In this first session, there will not be a Q&A at the end but you can use the coffee break afterwards to get your questions answered.
19
Panel discussion: the role of business and sustainable development in our country
Question 1: In the context of delivering green growth in our country, how do you see the current role of business? What challenges/opportunities to do you see?
Question 2: How do you think engagement between CSOs and business can help overcome these challenges and realise opportunities and how can we further enable this to happen (such as enabling frameworks)?
Question 3: What advice or suggestions would you give to the CSO participants in this room for how they could help you deliver on your own contribution to the implementation of the natural resources strategy in our country, or more generally?
Q&A from the participants
Presenter
Presentation Notes
A panel discussion can be a useful way to hear from different voices in the room (especially invited business associations or government officials!) and provide input for future discussion. Here is a suggested framing for the discussion, but do adapt the questions to your context.
20
INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE
GROUP DISCUSSION: BUSINESS IN OUR LANDSCAPES
21
Group work – situation in your landscapes
In your respective landscapes, what businesses are present? What are their connections within the country and also internationally?
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Replace these images with your own relevant landscape maps.
22
Group exercise: “RICH PICTURE”
• A useful starting point to get the general agreement of your stakeholders on current and future action
• To create an open discussion and come to a broad, shared understanding of a complex situation.
• Developed by Peter Checkland as part of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)
• 30 minutes
22
23
• Step 1: Place a large piece of paper on a table so that everyone can easily contribute to drawing the picture. Use pictures, text, symbols and icons to graphically illustrate the situation. Who leads?
• Step 2 Start off by drawing the most important physical features of the current situation and the main stakeholders - for example, the critical people, organisations or aspects of the landscape. Indicate the links between these entities. Don’t talk – just draw!
• Step 3: Consider also the problems and issues, vision and opportunities, infrastructures , institutional setting, economic issues and social and cultural issues that may affect the intervention.
• Step 4 Tell a story about the picture/ key challenges.
23
Group exercise: “RICH PICTURE”
Presenter
Presentation Notes
In groups 4-5, one flip chart per table, lots of pens Draw the landscape (key features, actors, links, etc.) – 15 minutes New flip chart - (change groups, 1 person stays) Discuss what is the vision for the landscape? 15 minutes (plus short “popcorn” feedback from a few groups – key words captured on flip chart, plus rapporteur) Same flip chart - Change groups again, one person stays behind) What needs to happen as a priority for this vision to be realised? (3-4 strategic objectives) 15 minutes (plus short “popcorn” feedback from a few groups – captured on flip chart, plus rapporteur) Reflection in plenary on observations on what came out of this exercise? How aligned is the vision? Any gaps noticed? In his original writing Checkland refers to the ‘situation’, the situation may be a program, issue, initiative or other term used in evaluation. Checkland provides some guidelines as to what should be included in the description so that a rich understanding of the situation is developed: Structures Processes Climate People Issues expressed by people Conflict
24
Plenary feedback
• “Pop-corn” feedback from each table – key words/highlights• Relfection – what are common elements that came up? What should we prioritise?
25
Next steps and check-out
• Individuals reflect on:– What is one highlight they took from the day– One idea for action they would like to take forward
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The lead should clarify now what are the next steps after this session. Then allow participants to reflect on what they have taken from the discussions so far.
26
Acknowledgements
These slides have been put together from a number of sources over the years. Key inputs include:
- Shared Resources, Joint solutions - We Value Nature
Please feel free to edit and use these slides as you need. Do share with us how they have helped and if you have any suggestions for improvements to Nadine at biobiz@iucn.org