Due to human pressures, 75 percent of the global land surface is significantly altered and 66% of the ocean area is being negatively impacted. One million species might become extinct within our current century. Nature has value; it is an asset. So states the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

There are nine planetary boundaries:
• Biodiversity loss
• Chemical and plastic pollution
• Nutrient pollution
• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Aerosol pollution
• Ocean acidification
• Ozone depletion (on the path to recovery)
• Freshwater Consumption
• Forest cover loss

Four of them are outside a safe operating space. They are biodiversity loss; chemical and plastic pollution; nutrient pollution; and greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture is the largest contributor to depletion of natural resources. Crop agriculture accounts for 72% of freshwater consumption; 61% of nitrogen runoff; and 32% of terrestrial biodiversity loss.

Corporations can help to set the earth on a path to recovery. There already exist technologies which could help with the loss of freshwater, nutrient pollution, forest cover loss, and chemical and plastic pollution.

Investing in companies that are helping our planet to heal is what impact investing is all about. In the final analysis, experts believe that it will be businesses which will push governments to adopt policies aimed at reversing the destruction to nature and our planet. 

When we invest in companies which are trying to make a positive “impact”, we are helping to “repair” or restore the health of our planet.