Private sector and business solutions to improved land use

“The landscape approach has been championed by organisations active in the development and conservation sectors for many years, though the concept has been slow to migrate into mainstream corporate thinking. Now this report from the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, sets out a case for companies to think about their business in landscape terms. I urge businesses, governments and other stakeholders to explore the key findings and messages within this report and apply similar approaches to their own operations.”

– José Lopez, Executive Vice President, Operations, Nestlé S.A.

“We face some very complex risks along our supply chains, all connected in some way to climate change. Addressing them only at the farm level won’t work. These problems involve too many interconnected variables.”

– Chris Brett, Head of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, Olam International

With a changing environmental and business landscape making the “business-as-usual model” unsustainable, companies are increasingly accounting for people and the planet to maintain profitability. While companies might see this new focus as a detriment to growth, some enterprising firms are already working with a multitude of stakeholders to increase social responsibility practices with an eye on the bottom line.

This report highlights best practices from among agribusinesses in their own pursuit of reducing risk. Out of an initial scope of 27 agribusinesses that are already using landscape approaches to deal with sustainability challenges, the authors chose three companies to investigate further—Starbucks, Olam International, and SABMiller—who are each taking unique proactive approaches to dealing with environmental and social risks.