The News: Salesforce is adding a Nature Positive Strategy to its Climate Action Plan, with a specific set of commitments related to nature and biodiversity. The Nature Positive Strategy will coexist alongside Salesforce’s other sustainability initiatives including a net-zero commitment by 2040, a 50 percent reduction in business travel emissions by 2050, getting 60 percent of its suppliers to commit to a science-based target, and investing in technological and nature-based carbon removals. Read more from Salesforce.
Salesforce Adds a Nature Positive Strategy to its Climate Action Plan
Analyst Take: The announcement by Salesforce of the addition of a Nature Positive Strategy to its Climate Action Plan was great to see. Strong commitments to climate action are exactly what we need today, from every company across every sector. Salesforce already has established Ocean-Climate Policy Priorities designed to drive climate solutions around oceans, and this new Nature Positive Strategy has a specific set of commitments related to nature and biodiversity.
As mentioned earlier, Salesforce’s Nature Positive Strategy joins the company’s other sustainability initiatives including a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2040, a commitment to reduce business travel emissions by 50 percent by 2050, investing in tech and nature-based carbon removal initiatives, and convincing 60 percent of suppliers to commit to a science-based target.
Why a Nature Positive Strategy?
So why a “nature positive strategy”? I asked myself the same question. McKinsey published a report in the fall of 2022 addressing the fact that while Global 500 companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of nature, very few companies have actually set nature-related commitments outside of carbon. McKinsey’s report: Where the world’s largest companies stand on nature, explores nature-related risks and opportunities and tackles the fact that the health of nature in general is, or should be, as pressing of a concern as climate change.
McKinsey’s data showed that setting corporate climate change targets are common, but that nature-related awareness and concerns are largely remaining unaddressed.
McKinsey Data on nature-related commitments paints a startling picture, as you can see in the chart below. Note that while 83% of Fortune Global 500 have acknowledged and set targets around climate change, other areas like freshwater consumption, chemical and plastic pollution, forest and seabed loss, biodiversity loss, and nutrient pollution are either only slightly acknowledged or acknowledged without any target set for corporate action.
McKinsey’s report shows that few of the Fortune Global 500 have set quantitative targets across multiple nature-related areas and that, as to be expected, some sectors are ahead of others in setting nature-related targets. For instance, the Agriculture sector leads on setting three or more nature-related topics, but since that industry more than others pays attention to factors like nutrient pollution and water concerns more than others, it makes sense. Here’s a look at McKinsey data on which sectors are where on this front:
Salesforce’s Nature Positive Strategy
Now Salesforce’s move to establish a Nature Positive Strategy makes even more sense, doesn’t it? The Salesforce Nature Positive Strategy focuses on these key areas:
- Reducing impacts on nature
- Leading nature restoration at scale
- Accelerating customer success and the nature positive movement
Salesforce’s Nature Positive Strategy includes measuring, managing, and developing a plan to reduce the company’s impact on nature and nature dependencies by 2025. It also includes a commitment to buy one million tons of high-quality blue carbon credits by 2025, a commitment to support and mobilize the conservation, restoration, and growth of 100 million trees by 2030, and a goal of distributing $100 million through the Ecosystem Restoration & Climate Justice Fund.
As part of the Salesforce Nature Positive Strategy, the company will add global frameworks and methodologies around nature and biodiversity to its Net Zero Cloud reporting tool. The reporting framework for Taskforce on Nature Related Disclosures is due to be released later this year, and Salesforce is already integrating standards from the European Union into its platform, such as support for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
This Nature Positive Strategy is the latest in a series of sustainability-focused initiatives by Salesforce, including a recent commitment to boost clean energy access in emerging markets, the launch of a new carbon credit marketplace, and a $100 million commitment in May 2022 to support technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere. Salesforce has also introduced climate obligations in its supplier procurement contracts and the integration of ESG performance in its executive compensation programs. In my view, there is no such thing as too much of a commitment to or passion for sustainability. Not only do we — as in humanity as a whole — desperately need these kinds of commitments from major corporate entities (and every other organization out there), these initiatives are important to stakeholders across the board, including shareholders, employees, customers, and beyond.
I’m excited to see this move designed to bring awareness to nature-related initiatives and hope that this spurs other organizations and Salesforce clients to make similar commitments.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Honeywell Environmental Sustainability Index, Q2 2023
Salesforce Sustainability Efforts Aiding Emerging Markets
Author Information
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
