On the 16th of March 2024, The Society For Corporate Governance Nigeria successfully hosted an exclusive session virtually for its members titled “The ‘E’ in ESG: The Impact of Biodiversity in Driving Business Resilience and Growth”

The event brought together industry leaders, environmental experts, and business executives to explore the critical role of biodiversity in fostering sustainable growth and enhancing business resilience.

With the rapid transformation of the business landscape, companies are slowly recognizing the vital importance of environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation. This exclusive session provided a platform for an insightful discussion on how integrating biodiversity into corporate strategies can drive positive impact and innovation.

Dr. Ania Grobicki, a renowned ESG, biodiversity expert and board director, was the speaker at the webinar. She delivered an address highlighting the urgent need for businesses to prioritize biodiversity. She provided actionable insights and real-world examples of how African businesses are successfully integrating biodiversity into their operations.

‘’At the moment, ESG is still in a sort of an introductory phase. There are some aspects of ESG that are better known like the overall sustainability but in terms of the ESG, this is not yet very well known and that’s the reason why the Society For Corporate Governance decided to organize this session. It’s implementable, but this depends on ownership of the highest levels of companies from board leadership to management leadership, the executives and all the way down to the company’’ she said.

When asked to what extent the concept of ESG is implementable within the Nigerian business environment, she went further to highlight the need for awareness and the importance of biodiversity conservation for companies.

‘’Biodiversity is important for companies; it is important for all of us and it reduces risks to invest in biodiversity conservation. So, i think certainly it is implementable, what it needs is increasing awareness and it requires leadership at the company level’’ she said.

The session also had a series of engaging presentations and interactive sessions. Key topics included:

The value of ESG Performance to private Companies (Environmental, Social and Governance Standards)

Society For Corporate Governance exist to work with Governance to boost their corporate governance, environmental and social principles.

Nature as an asset class

IFC performance standard 6: The Gold standard for biodiversity conservation

Examples of implementing PS6 from African companies

Biodiversity tools for business compliance

Attendees expressed enthusiasm for the event’s content and the practical knowledge gained through ‘’Q n A s’’

“It’s a very good and educating webinar. I would encourage there should be more of this frequently,” said one of the attendees.

The session was concluded with participants gaining a robust understanding of biodiversity’s significance and business implications. The discussions and insights shared are expected to drive meaningful change and innovation within participating organizations, promoting a stronger commitment to environmental sustainability.