Achieving market transformation is beyond the capacity of any individual business, or even group of businesses. It will require a network of far-sighted businesses, NGOs, investors, governments and consumers working towards system change.
WWF’s role comes from being a trusted custodian of environmental science and a respected convenor with global reach. Much of our work is carried out in partnership with other organisations, although, where necessary, we also campaign directly against environmentally damaging behaviour.
Over the years, WWF has helped create and promote credible certification schemes. These include the Forest Stewardship Council and the Marine Stewardship Council. It also supports networks that increase information on corporate performance, such as Banktrack, or that campaign for regulatory reform, such as the CORE Coalition. We have also supported leading corporations by constructively challenging their operations and policies – for example, we have worked with Marks & Spencer plc on water footprinting, and with HSBC on its lending policies. From its experiences with these initiatives, WWF’s Sustainable Business and Markets team has identified five key challenges:
- how to create and promote a developed lifestyle that is personally aspirational, globally fair and ecologically sustainable;
- how to ensure that economic systems work to deliver this lifestyle and govern markets so that they operate within ecological limits;
- how to transform key markets (starting with housing and energy, food and transport) so that they operate within their fair share of ecological limits and enable business to provide for a sustainable lifestyle;
- how to enable business and industry to transform its business models, operations and products and services in order to create value within ecological limits; and
- how to minimise the worst ecological impacts of business while this transformation is under way.
WWF works to help brand owners and their agencies embed environmental and social insights and values at the heart of what they do. This complements One Planet Business, our engagement with businesses to help them drive systemic change to create markets where they can thrive within environmental limits, and One Planet Finance, which engages financial institutions in reshaping financial markets to favour sustainable business. It also complements our ongoing work to pressure the oil and gas industry to reduce its impacts on sensitive environments. All this work highlights WWF’s continued commitment to diverse tactics that meet the urgent need for a sustainable economy.
WWF and HSBC hot air balloons taking off © Brent Stirton/Getty Images/WWF-UK