Salesforce unveils Nature Positive Strategy

Salesforce has unveiled a new strategy, committing the business to become ‘nature positive’ by aligning biodiversity with its existing net-zero ambition.


Salesforce unveils Nature Positive Strategy

Image: Salesforce

Salesforce has today (5 April) announced a Nature Positive Strategy to protect and restore nature and align with the recommendations of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

The new strategy outlines the specific actions the company will take to restore and protect nature while delivering its existing commitment to becoming net-zero under its Climate Action Plan.

The Strategy commits Salesforce to measuring, managing and developing an action plan to reduce impacts on nature across its value chain and operations by 2025. The company has confirmed it is already taking part in the TNFD’s pilot phase ahead of its launch later this year.

Salesforce will also invest and take part in initiatives to restore nature at scale, including planting 100 million trees by 2030 and accelerating a Mangrove Breakthrough initiative to restore and protect mangroves at scale.

Finally, Salesforce will expand its Cloud solutions to help its customers embrace nature restoration and climate action. The company will also advocate for policies and empower local and Indigenous communities through the UN’s Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform.

“For Salesforce, incorporating nature into our decision-making is not only about managing risks and costs, but also about value creation, innovation, and collaboration,” Salesforce’s chief impact officer Suzanne DiBianca said.

“We’re excited to bring the full power of Salesforce to our customers, partners, and ecopreneurs so they too can be part of shaping a net-zero, nature-positive future.”

Late last year, nations agreed on a landmark ‘Paris-style’ deal to protect and restore nature across the globe at COP15 in Montreal. The framework aims to “progressively close” a $700bn annual biodiversity finance game and features 23 action-oriented targets to be delivered by 2030.

The headline goal is to ensure that at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration by 2030.

At the end of September 2021, Salesforce announced that was a net-zero company “across its full value chain” and had reached 100% renewable energy for its operations.

Salesforce claims the new nature strategy will enable it to contribute to the delivery of these goals.

Prior to the announcement, Salesforce had already delivered a carbon-neutral cloud and operations. In a bid to drive further emissions reductions in-house and to reduce the use of carbon offsetting, the company has developed 1.5C-aligned targets, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). These entail halving Scope 1 (direct) and 2 (power-related) emissions by 2030, against a 2018 baseline; halving Scope 3 (indirect) emissions from fuel and energy activities within the same timescale and supporting suppliers representing 60% of Scope 3 emissions to set their own targets in line with climate science by 2024.

It has also introduced a new stakeholder capitalism business model to embed sustainability into its decision-making process. Click here to read an in-depth feature exploring that business model.

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