Nyon, Switzerland/Oxford, UK – 12 December 2024 - Earthworm Foundation (EF) and Nature-based Insights (NbI), a social venture spin-out of the University of Oxford, are excited to announce a strategic partnership to help companies drive significant positive impacts on nature, climate, and human well-being in their supply chains.
By combining their expertise, this partnership will provide a stronger framework for corporate commitments and ensure that corporations effectively address nature loss and climate change and support local communities in the landscapes they depend upon.
In today's rapidly evolving business environment, companies are setting ambitious net-zero targets, aiming to eliminate or offset their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner. These goals are aligned with climate science - limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (IPCC, 2021), a global goal set by the Paris Agreement in 2015.
Similarly, as ambitious global goals for nature are set by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, companies are increasingly required to report and act on their nature-related impacts and risks. However, companies face challenges in translating these targets into actionable interventions on the ground, especially when it comes to supporting the communities that play a crucial role in delivering positive outcomes for climate, nature, and human wellbeing.
Yet top-down approaches for addressing nature and carbon impacts driven by reporting requirements alone will lack the participatory approach that needs to be integral to developing effective interventions on the ground, which must be locally relevant and socially just. These issues are often addressed in isolation, leading to inefficiencies and unintended consequences. By combining their expertise, Earthworm Foundation and Nature-based Insights offer a comprehensive approach. This partnership provides detailed data and an interdisciplinary perspective that is essential for making informed decisions that are ecologically sound, aligned with net zero goals, and involve and support local stakeholders.
Boris Saraber, Earthworm Foundation’s Chief Operations Officer, expresses his enthusiasm for the collaboration, "We see a natural pairing of Earthworm’s extensive experience in fieldwork and supply chain dynamics with Nature-based Insight’s strong foundation in developing analytical frameworks and evidence-based metrics. When science and pragmatism come together in the field, we see more effective outcomes aligned with how real change happens."
The partnership also strengthens Earthworm Foundation’s ability to provide companies with tools to ensure that their climate commitments contribute to the livelihoods of farming communities whilst also supporting nature and biodiversity goals.
Dr. Cécile Girardin, NbI’s Director, commented, “To effectively tackle the intertwined climate and biodiversity crises, a multidisciplinary approach is essential. NbI brings decades of expertise in scientific research, advanced data analysis, and challenging fieldwork, while Earthworm Foundation offers unparalleled operational proficiency in implementing landscape programmes in challenging environments. Together, their combined strengths create a solid foundation for delivering impactful, scalable, and high-integrity nature-based solutions.”
NbI's unique ability to synthesise global and local datasets with local expertise is key to this partnership, ensuring the implementation of ecologically and socially sound nature-based solutions aligned with net zero goals.
By helping to create analytical frameworks supported by standardised biodiversity monitoring protocols, companies can avoid working in silos, instead working with established best practices to ensure comprehensive and meaningful impacts.
One such example of this partnership in action is the collaboration with Reckitt, a leading global consumer goods company home to a number of trusted hygiene, health and nutrition brands, where EF and NbI are working together to ground-truth metrics relating to the implementation of Nature-based Solutions co-designed with stakeholders in Thailand for rubber and latex, as well as for palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia. Reckitt is playing a leading role in supporting this work and would like to see the approach adopted more widely across the sourcing region's collective actions.
EF and NbI have already seen positive results in collaboration, which have led to:
• Field-tested solutions and impact monitoring in the palm and rubber sectors across Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This project is an advanced TNFD pilot (TNFD LEAP Guidance, 2024, p.121; WBCSD the NbS blueprint, 2024).
• Alignments on essential data points to ensure credibility and effective integration of biodiversity metrics.
• Collaborative efforts with local actors, contributing to global platforms such as the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) to adopt nature-based solutions (NbS).
• Enhanced models to quantify ecosystem impacts, identify risks of future degradation, and highlight opportunities for NbS investment.
Together, Earthworm Foundation and NbI are committed to scaling up this innovative approach, integrating the Biodiversity Impact Metric (BIM) into all landscape approaches and supporting companies in their journey toward net-zero commitments. As this collaboration continues to develop, EF and NbI are committed to sharing their learnings and best practices with a broader audience, supporting companies in accelerating their climate commitments while contributing to positive outcomes for both biodiversity and local communities.
About Earthworm Foundation
Earthworm Foundation is an impact-driven non-profit that works with businesses, civil society, and governments to regenerate forests and soils for and with people. Its global team of social, environmental, and supply chain professionals who work across the value chain to ensure responsible sourcing commitments are implemented, innovative solutions for social and environmental challenges are created and foster better outcomes for people, forests, and soils worldwide.
Learn more at www.earthworm.org.
About Nature-based Insights (NbI)
Nature-based Insights (NbI) is a social venture spin-out from the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford. NbI works at the interface between research and practice to apply the latest science to help businesses and financial institutions implement nature-based solutions with integrity. By synthesising global datasets, models, field research, and local expertise to provide comprehensive analysis on nature, NbI ensures investments go towards effective nature-based solutions, net-zero aligned, ecologically sound, and socially just.
Learn more at www.naturebasedinsights.com/
For more information, please contact:
Rini Vella-Gangne, Global Engagement Lead | Earthworm Foundation
r.vella-gangne@earthworm.org (+33 616 58 75 63)
Luke Ramsey, Operations Director | Nature-based Insights
luke@naturebasedinsights.com (+44 799 96 65 939)
