Biodiversity and Business: who will save whom?

Abstract

Environmental concerns have become a central challenge for business, but they are far too often reduced to the climate question. Another crisis is looming, often described as the “sister crisis” of climate: biodiversity. This thesis explores how business and biodiversity are interdependent and can sustain each other. First, it establishes that biodiversity will save business. As a matter of fact, biodiversity provides the necessary conditions for conducting business thanks to ecosystem services, and it also provides resources for innovation thanks to biomimicry. Second, the thesis highlights how business can save biodiversity by accurately measuring and managing its impact on nature. Finally, the thesis explores the intersection of a nature-based and a positive-economy, and the necessary changes that will facilitate the emergence of companies which are simultaneously from and for nature.