You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. To the Editor — Folke et al. In doing so they remind us that organizations are a prominent meso-scale social phenomena, no less important for sustainability than governments and individuals.
While clear-eyed about the willingness of TNCs to actively steward the biosphere, Folke et al. However, there is room for a more nuanced conceptualization of TNCs that does not gloss over salient features such as industry affiliation, competitive strategy and organizational complexity. Perceiving TNCs as uniform rather than heterogeneous obscures potential pathways to encouraging, incentivizing or coercing them towards stewardship. Management research on organizations and the natural environment 2 can identify effective approaches, tailored to different TNC archetypes.
Folke et al. In the food sector, for example, restaurants and retailers, including traditionally meat-based fast-food restaurant chains, are embracing and even extolling plant-based menu items, which require very low switching costs. At the same time, meat processors, further back in the value chain, are resisting this shift and fighting a rear-guard battle to position animal meat as a non-substitutable product.
In their segment of the value chain, biodiversity stewardship is more of a short-term threat than an opportunity. The oil and gas sector, by contrast, is more vertically integrated, meaning that TNCs typically span more of the value chain. An energy company that is investing in renewable energy, and is therefore better positioned to thrive in the transition to a low-carbon economy, for instance, is less likely to lobby against efforts to curtail fossil fuel emissions, and may in fact support them 3.
In sum, contingent on industry and core competencies, a TNC may perceive stewardship to be a risk management endeavour, a means of differentiation, an opportunity to reformulate a business model, or an existential threat 4. See Fig. Biodiversity stewardship is non-uniform along value chains. Figure adapted with permission from ref. But even this portrayal is overly simplified, particularly for large TNCs, which often employ tens of thousands of people across dozens of countries.
These complex entities rarely have strategies that coherently orient all their activities 5. In fact, corporate sustainability is an exercise in managing essentially unresolvable tensions and paradoxes 7. Finally, most TNC sustainability initiatives are process-based. Sustainability reporting and environmental accreditation are managerial tools, not environmental outcomes. Letting forests regrow on their own could be a secret weapon to fighting climate change.
Back To Top. If a tree has power, a forest has even more. What superpowers do trees have? TNC manages the reserve, where some of the trees are up to 4, years old. Older trees store a lot more carbon dioxide than younger trees. We lose 32 million acres of forests each year. Help Stop Deforestation. In addition to encouraging heart-healthy physical exercise, green space reduces stress levels.
Louisville is a transit hub, and the air quality is affected by exhaust from tens of thousands of planes, trucks and trains. Green Heart Planting Workers dig holes for installation of large trees along a Louisville highway. The trees will form a wall to reduce air pollution before it enters the community. Your Dollars at Work TNC is in the middle of the first controlled experiment testing neighborhood tree planting for health benefits in the same way that a new pharmaceutical drug would be tested.
Habitat from Fallen Trees Woody debris on the forest floor, a characteristic of older growth forests, provides great habitat for all sorts of life. Red fox pup Old-growth forests create habitat at the ground level, allowing many diverse species like this red fox pup to thrive.
Tree-lined street A tree's shade acts like natural air conditioning, keeping the area five to eight degrees cooler than surrounding areas. Shady streets like this one in Park Slope, Brooklyn make walking and biking more possible. To fully use their powers, trees need our help. In Indonesia, which boasts some of the largest swathes of old-growth tropical forests in the world, the national government is striving to grow its economy and raise the standard of living for its people, and timber production is part of that plan.
Fortunately, reduced-impact logging RIL-C —a set of logging practices that focuses on removing only high-quality timber while minimizing impact to the ecosystem—can reduce some carbon emissions and minimize damage to soil and water quality while also maintaining an active industry that resists forest conversion and supports communities. The Nature Conservancy is working with the national government and with logging concessions in Indonesia for 15 years now, helping them implement such practices.
For example, loggers can take care to leave hollow trees standing—these trees are unusable for timber but will continue to store significant amounts of carbon if left standing and provide critical wildlife habitat. Better technology for skidding logs out of the forest, and better road construction can also reduce impact to forests and further mitigate carbon emissions.
By creating a more sustainable logging industry, this collaborative effort not only minimizes carbon emissions in the short term, but also creates a path for landowners to make a living on their lands without clearing them for palm cultivation or agriculture, practices that would result in far greater emissions.
One of the ways to minimize those emissions, perhaps counter-intuitively, is to build more with wood. Wood construction, on the other hand, actively stores carbon in the building, and wood-constructed buildings have lower energy usage download. Furthermore, because wood is much lighter than steel or concrete, construction projects can be completed more quickly and with less waste and less energy expenditure, resulting in further emissions reductions and a comparable cost for builders and investors.
Wood is one the strongest and most versatile building materials—and, in addition to storing carbon, it is one of the few that is fully recyclable and renewable. Of course, not all wood carries the same benefits.
To have a low carbon footprint, wood products need to be sourced from well-managed natural forests or from sustainable plantations that do not drive clearance or degradation of existing forests. Certification of supply chains is key to ensure that the wood being used has positive consequences for people and planet. More demand for sustainably grown timber products means more green jobs and more incentive to replant and maintain forests, sequestering more carbon from the atmosphere and providing a range of co-benefits, from water filtration to wildlife habitat.
The reforestation of Brazil's Mantiqueira Mountains is poised to give water security to 20 million people and become a beacon of light in the global fight against climate change. More information.
China is on the brink of creating the world's largest carbon market. This is a huge opportunity for driving investment into forests and high biodiversity conservation.
The evolution of East Kalimantan to becoming a pioneer in forest-friendly, low-carbon growth is a testament to the value of strong leadership and collaboration—and the need to think big, work small and embrace complexity. The United States could mitigate a fifth of its emissions through conservation and land management.
Global leaders are increasingly realizing that the world cannot respond adequately to climate change if we ignore how forests, farms, and coasts are managed.
By Justin Adams. We have forgotten the role nature can play in mitigating climate change. Global Insights. Check out our latest thinking and real-world solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing people and the planet today.
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