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Nature and biodiversity

As responsible investor, PGGM calls upon companies to implement targets and strategies to minimize their contribution to nature and biodiversity loss. The strategies should be appropriate to their businesses and aligned with the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

PGGM expects investee companies to minimize their negative impact by embedding the preservation of nature into their strategies and by adopting sustainable practices such as resource efficiency, circular design and processes, and sustainable procurement. On top of minimizing their footprint, we also encourage companies to be nature positive by, by adopting regenerative practices, implementing nature-based solutions, and investing in nature restoration. 

In our engagements we focus on the following science-based drivers of nature and biodiversity loss:

  • Land use and sea use change: Land and sea use change, driven primarily by agricultural and soft commodity production, as well as cattle raising, leads to deforestation and land conversion. Other contributing factors include resource extraction, urbanization, infrastructure development, coastal development, and aquaculture.
  • Direct exploitation of nature: Overexploitation of animals, plants and natural resources is the second largest cause of biodiversity loss, primarily caused by overlogging, overgrazing or overfishing due to insufficient regulation and enforcement.
  • Pollution of soil, water and air: Chemical emissions, oil spills, unmanaged wastewater, microplastics, residues of crop protection agents and emissions of pharmaceuticals are just a few causes of pollution related to biodiversity loss.


Within this engagement program, PGGM defines companies as high risk if they are contribute or are likely to contribute to one or more of these drivers due to their business activities. We do so using multiple data sources, including from commercial data providers and NGO benchmarks such as Forest IQ. We prioritize our engagement efforts with companies that operate in high risk sectors and do not have appropriate policies in place.

Finance for Biodiversity Foundation and Nature Action 100

PGGM is a signatory of the Finance for Biodiversity pledge and an active member of the Finance for Biodiversity foundation. We believe contributing to developing shared best practices and standards with peers on nature and biodiversity is an important aspect of our engagement work. This field is complex and fragmented and through collaboration we can foster its development. On the same note, we engage collectively with other investors under Nature Action 100- a global investor engagement initiative focused on driving greater corporate ambition and action to reverse nature and biodiversity loss. The initiative engages companies in key sectors that are deemed to be systemically important in reversing nature and biodiversity loss by 2030.