Evaluating the biodiversity commitments of Earth’s keystone corporations

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Tom White
14th July 2026
2 minutes read

 

In our new paper, led by Isobel Hawkins, we assess the biodiversity commitments of the world’s most influential corporations in sectors that have substantial impacts on biodiversity.

We first identify the ‘keystone corporations’ within each sector – a small number of firms that gave a disproportionate influence over a large proportion of the entire sector. Many sectors have a handful of firms with collective influence over >50% of an entire sector.

These organizations have a lot of ability to drive change. If they take proactive and positive action to address biodiversity loss, they could become powerful agents of change driving the sustainability transition across their sectors.

We then assess the biodiversity targets being made by these businesses (180 keystone corporations), and review the robustness of the commitments these companies are making.

We find several interesting results:

1) Biodiversity is rising on the agenda – a promising trend! 79% of firms make some form of biodiversity commitment in their reporting.

2) But only 13% of companies made ‘robust’ commitments that provided sufficient clarity and detail to enable them to be accountable.

3) But this varied substantially by sector. Sectors such as soybean and cocoa had a higher proportion of companies with robust commitments. Whilst sectors inc. cement, animal pharma and seeds showed the opposite trend. Some sectors even had a number of companies with no publicly available reports available.

So why might this be the case? Whilst we don’t have a definitive answer, in the paper we explore potential reasons for this trend. Reasons for lack of clarity in target setting may include limited guidance on standardized commitment setting, misaligned commercial incentives, strong targets leading to increased public scrutiny (and associated perceived risks of doing the wrong thing), limited capacity, ambition and data availability. In the paper, we offer possible leverage points to help collaboratively address these challenges.

Commitments, however, are just one part of the puzzle. We need solid and clear commitments, as part of wider strategies for assessing impacts, reporting outcomes and taking action on the ground.

Read the paper here: Evaluating the biodiversity commitments of Earth’s keystone corporations: One Earth

Author

Tom White | Research Fellow
 I am a conservation scientist interested in how we can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of biodiversity conservation actions, to ensure they are delivering the conservation gains required to address the biodiversity crisis and meet global targets. Having originally trained in Biological Sciences and Conservation Science, I have recently completed a PhD with the Conservation Evidence group in Cambridge University using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate how we can improve the cost-effectiveness of conservation action.

I also have several years of experience in environmental consultancy where I have developed a particular interest in the role of the private sector in addressing their negative biodiversity impacts, and in delivering conservation action. This has recently formed a large proportion of my work, and I continue to work part time at The Biodiversity Consultancy, to help develop collaborative research projects that cross the research-practice boundary.
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