Bringing Business and Biodiversity Together By Making Conservation Profitable

Biologists are alerting us to the fact that we’re experiencing major losses of biodiversity and wildlife habitat throughout the world and they’re taking steps to address the issue. Corporations, on the other hand, are expanding operations and hoping to grow. It’s just a matter of time before the actions of corporations and biologists collide. Corporations will soon face increasing stakeholder scrutiny and pressure to do their part to protect our planet’s biodiversity and wildlife.

Fortunately, conservation versus profit is not a zero sum game where the winner takes all. There are many win-win scenarios, which are good for business (e.g., reduced costs, reduced risk, and increased profits) and good for biodiversity (e.g., healthy species, populations, and ecosystems).

In this book, I focus on a key idea, which I call “profitable conservation,” meaning any action that benefits wildlife, biodiversity, and business. A long list of actions may meet that criteria; however, as the late, great, personal development guru Jim Rohn used to say, “There are always a half-dozen things that make 80% of the difference” for any area of life. In this book you’ll learn the half-dozen things that businesses can do that make 80% of the difference when it comes to benefiting wildlife, biodiversity, and the bottom line.

Content and Format of This Book

This book is divided into three parts:

In Part 1 (Chapters 1 and 2), we’ll look at the corporate and biologist perspectives on the topic of biodiversity and natural resource management, including a primer on corporate environmental management strategies to help you better understand how companies manage natural resource and environmental issues. Then, we’ll put on our conservation-biology hat and see how biologists view the topic of biodiversity conservation and discuss the all-important business case for biodiversity and natural-resource conservation.

In Part 2 (Chapters 3 through 7), we’ll dive into various profitable-conservation strategies that corporations can choose, which have the potential to benefit business and biodiversity, along with guidance on how to implement these strategies. Each chapter will close with a list of action items to help you identify your best course of action for that topic.

In Part 3 (Chapters 8 through 12), we’ll walk through four case studies that feature businesses from a variety of industries and countries. This will give you a better idea of how other companies approach and practice biodiversity and wildlife conservation. These companies aren’t perfect, but they provide a good representation of the broad spectrum of profitable-conservation approaches that companies are taking to protect wildlife and biodiversity. Then we’ll close with a call to action that applies to each us, as individuals, regardless of what we do for a living.

I’ve written this book in a conversational style, which I hope you’ll find easier and more enjoyable than a traditional textbook. To increase the odds that you’ll finish this book, I’ve also decided to keep it short and to the point. I won’t try to impress you with technical jargon, complex theories, and academic references. Instead, I’ll provide just enough information to help you identify action steps that make sense for your organization along with key points that may help you sell your ideas to senior management. If you walk away with one to three ideas with which you’ll experiment in your organization or your own life, then I’ll consider this book to be a fantastic success!

After reading this book, you’ll have a solid understanding of how and why businesses should be an active part of the solution, and you’ll learn a wide variety of profitable-conservation strategies that will protect biodiversity and wildlife while boosting your bottom line.