Nature Is Your Most Important Supplier. Have You Done Due Diligence on It?

Half of the world’s GDP has a moderate to strong dependence on functioning ecosystems. Most companies have never mapped that dependence. At the Biodiversity & Business 2026 conference, one thing became clear: this is no longer an environmental issue — it’s also a business issue, and the way to approach it is collaboration along the entire value chain.

A supplier without due diligence
Elin Larsson from WWF put her finger on it with an image that stuck with many in the room: Imagine that a significant share of your company’s value depends on a single supplier. You have never done due diligence on them. You have underpaid them for decades. They are showing signs of failing, and there is no alternative supplier.

That supplier is nature.

That was also the frame that brought together Swedish and international leaders from business, finance, and policy when Di Event hosted Biodiversity & Business 2026 in Stockholm on May 7.

The Risk Sits Upstream
For food and beverage companies, which we work with, the insight is particularly direct: the biodiversity footprint — and therefore the risk exposure — for most companies does not lie within their own operations, but upstream in the value chain. In raw materials. In agriculture. With the primary producers.

That observation came up again and again throughout the day, and it raises a concrete question for every head of procurement, sustainability, and business development: Do you know what is happening three steps up your chain — and what the consequence will be for your margin if that system comes under pressure?

For companies now reporting under CSRD, ESRS E4 on biodiversity is no longer optional. The mapping of dependencies and impacts has to be done, and it quickly exposes where in the value chain the knowledge is missing.

Collaboration Is the Key, but It Takes More Than Goodwill
One common thread throughout the conference was clear: without collaboration, we won’t get anywhere. But what does that mean in practice for a food value chain? It is not enough for each link to optimize on its own. Primary producers often lack capital and knowledge, processors lack visibility upstream, and retailers apply the price pressure that makes transformation difficult. Collaboration along the entire chain, with transparency around dependencies and shared risk, is the precondition. It requires procurement and sustainability functions to start speaking the same language.

Fredrik Nilzén, Head of Sustainability at Scania, captured the system logic clearly: solving one problem while creating another is not a solution. For the food value chain — which sits at the intersection of land, water, climate, and biodiversity — that is an insight that requires the actors to actually talk to each other, not just report on themselves.

From Risk to Resilience and Action
But the conversation on stage and in the networking sessions was about more than risk. The real shift, the one that belongs in the boardroom, is the move from risk management to resilience. Climate change, water scarcity, biodiversity, and food security form an interconnected system. That requires systems thinking, not siloed solutions.

Anders Breitholtz, CEO of Papershell, put words to the mood in the room: we have the tools. We have the technology. What we need now is to actually use them.

What Does This Mean in Practice?
At 2050, we are meeting more and more companies that understand biodiversity is strategically relevant but need support in understanding what it actually means for them specifically. For example, we recently helped one of Sweden’s leading food companies develop goals and actions on biodiversity, from mapping dependencies in raw materials to a concrete action plan.

We help companies:

• map their impacts and dependencies linked to nature and ecosystem services
• analyze risks across the entire value chain, not only their own operations
• set goals and develop concrete actions — from analysis to action

This is not about another reporting requirement. It is about understanding your business better.

Would you like to know what biodiversity means for your strategy, your board, or your value chain? We’d be happy to tell you more.