Nature Tech: Supporting Businesses to serve both Profit and Planet

For decades, productive farming and nature recovery risked being framed as opposing forces. Happily this has now changed, and the Dasgupta Review (2021) has unpicked the economics of biodiversity, with those prioritising soil health and biodiversity reaping the financial rewards of investing in nature.

A new wave of companies is setting out to demonstrate that technology inspired by – and designed to restore – nature can benefit both the environment and the bottom line. This “Nature Tech” movement is demonstrating that business success and ecological health are not trade-offs, but partners.

What is Nature Tech?

We view it as a sub-set of agri-tech – sitting at the intersection of biology, ecology, and advanced technology. The innovations emerging include deploy AI, sensors, biotechnology and data platforms. We would also include co-called “fintech” tools that value and trade ecosystem services such as carbon, water, and biodiversity.

Nature as critical infrastructure

Triple-bottom line accounting was pioneered John Elkington in 1994, aiming to expand the traditional financial “bottom line” to include social responsibility and environmental impact. The “People, Profit and Planet” element of his thinking encourages each to be equally weighted in importance and inter-dependence by businesses.

Viewing nature as a critical infrastructure, both at a national level for government investment, and at the level of individual businesses demands a change in mindset, and, importantly, the technology to help measure, monitor, report and verify impacts on nature.

We know many of our members are under pressure to understand and reduce nature-related risks, from supply chain disruptions to regulatory exposure. Meanwhile, governments and financial institutions are introducing nature-related disclosure frameworks and sustainability requirements, resulting in an urgent need for credible, tech-enabled solutions.

Finally – nature itself is becoming investable. Carbon markets, biodiversity credits, ecosystem restoration projects, and bio-based alternatives are beginning to open new categories of value creation.

Enter Nature Tech.

The size of the prize

According to the World Economic Forum and PwC, over half of global GDP – roughly $44 trillion – is “moderately” or “highly” dependent on nature and associated ecosystem services (such as water filtration, fertile soil, and climate regulation). And it’s not just food systems – construction, insurance, pharmaceuticals, energy – entire industries rely on them.

The Food and Land Use Coalition Growing Better report of 2019 went ever further, forecasting an economic benefit of $895 billion with a business opportunity of $200 billion, all in exchange for an investment of $45-65 billion… all by 2030.

Get involved

Inspired by this, we are hosting an event entitled “The Productive Landscape  – NatureTech for Profit and Planet” on 28^th April at Rothamsted. We’ll be hearing from the Chief Scientist of the Environment Agency, Dr Robert Bradburne, as well as major land-owners and farmers, technology companies, and those who are unpacking the real business of Nature Tech and income flows.

Hope to see you there.