Engaging with corporations
Conservation International works across industries to change the way the world does business, helping companies take bold steps toward sustainability that benefit people, the planet and their bottom lines.
Advancing our priorities
Nature can play a powerful role in providing solutions to climate change, yet nature receives just 3 percent of global climate funding. Conservation International helps drive corporate investment in nature by developing compelling business cases and clear pathways for investment in natural climate solutions that can help counter the worst effects of climate change.
Conservation International's goal is to expand protection of the world's oceans — while ensuring their sustainable use. We work closely with corporate partners to support ocean conservation at scale and drive improved management in fisheries around the world, reducing aquaculture's impact on marine ecosystems.
Conservation International works to unlock corporate financing to help create sustainable, nature-based development models for the world's most biologically rich landscapes and seascapes, and for the people who live there.
Our role
Conservation International has long believed that corporations have a responsibility not only to embrace environmentally and socially sustainable business practices, but to invest in the conservation of the nature their business depends upon.
We work within and across sectors, in collaboration with companies and industry associations, to align the market with environmentally friendly policies and to help businesses adopt more sustainable production practices.
We help businesses undertake three critical steps:
1
Transform production: We work with companies to make their supply and sourcing practices more sustainable so that production creates benefits for people and nature.
2
Inspire and activate: We work with companies to show them the value of protecting nature and to encourage support for conservation efforts.
3
Invest in nature: We help companies invest in efforts to protect nature for their benefit and for the benefit of humanity.
Our solutions
Partnering with business to invest in nature
Conservation International works with companies in agribusiness, retail, and food and consumer products to develop and apply practical tools that integrate conservation principles into business decisions. We enlist major retail and consumer goods companies to quantify their impact on nature and commit to conserving equivalent areas of land and water.
We also help companies create incentives for widespread adoption of responsible farming and land-use practices that protect and restore healthy ecosystems.
Using Conservation International’s science, Kering, Starbucks and Walmart have already committed to advancing sustainable production on 27 million hectares of production areas.
- Conservation International and Walmart
- Contributing to Nature-Positive Outcomes – A Reference Guide for Companies (3MB PDF)
- Partnering with the Private Sector to Develop and Enhance Nature Targets (0.7MB PDF)
Promoting sustainable sourcing
Everything you buy has a source, and often that source is nature. We work with corporate leaders and industry associations to help ensure those sources are sustainable. Our sustainable coffee team, for example, works with companies, research institutions and others to source coffee in a way that is sustainable, transparent and good for people and the planet.
- Sustainable Coffee Challenge
- Partnership with Starbucks Coffee Company
- Sustainable Palm Oil
- Engagement with Unilever
Our priorities
Principles that guide our work:
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Respecting human rights
Gender equality
Science-based restoration