NbS Business Forum

Businesses depend on healthy ecosystems for water, raw materials, productive land, climate regulation, and protection against natural hazards. Nature-based Solutions can help companies and financial actors manage climate- and nature-related risks, strengthen the resilience of operations and supply chains, and create opportunities for innovation, investment, and new business models.

By restoring ecosystems and working with natural processes, NbS can support climate adaptation, biodiversity, and long-term economic resilience at the same time. They can therefore contribute to business objectives ranging from risk reduction and operational continuity to sustainable finance and nature-positive strategies. Explore the NetworkNature resources on NbS for business and finance.

EU policies increasingly influence how businesses and financial institutions assess nature-related impacts and risks, report sustainability information, manage supply chains, and direct investment. Key instruments include:

Sustainable finance and investment

• The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, under which companies within its scope report on sustainability risks, opportunities, and their impacts on people and the environment using European Sustainability Reporting Standards.
• The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation requires financial market participants and financial advisers to communicate sustainability information to investors. It helps investors assess how sustainability risks are integrated into investment decisions and compare the sustainability characteristics of financial products. The European Commission proposed amendments to the framework in November 2025, which are not yet final.

Corporate sustainability and value chains

• The EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities, which provides a common classification of environmentally sustainable economic activities and supports investment decisions.
• The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which requires companies within its scope to identify and address adverse human-rights and environmental impacts in their operations, subsidiaries, and chains of activities.
• The EU Deforestation Regulation, which establishes requirements for covered commodities and products placed on, sold within, or exported from the EU market.

Biodiversity restoration and climate resilience

• The Nature Restoration Regulation, which sets binding restoration targets and can influence future restoration priorities, public planning, project pipelines, and market opportunities connected with ecosystem recovery.
• The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets out the EU’s long-term plan to protect nature and reverse ecosystem degradation. It promotes stronger nature protection and restoration, as well as greater consideration of biodiversity in decision-making, financing, and investment, thereby shaping the conditions for nature-positive business activity and NbS development.
• The EU Adaptation Strategy aims to make adaptation to climate change smarter, faster, and more systemic across the EU. It promotes better climate-risk information, the integration of resilience across sectors, and the wider use of Nature-based Solutions, making it relevant to businesses, investors, and insurers seeking to manage physical climate risks and support resilient investments.

Together, these instruments create stronger incentives for businesses and financial institutions to understand their relationship with nature, improve environmental performance, and consider NbS in business, risk-management, and investment decisions.