European Business Leaders Convene in Helsinki to Chart a Nature-Positive Future

The 2025 European Business and Nature Summit (EBNS) is currently underway in Helsinki, Finland, bringing together Europe's leading business and financial sectors. This pivotal event, spanning October 23-24, aims to cultivate profitable and sustainable business practices that operate in harmony with nature.

europa.eu reported, Organized by the European Business & Biodiversity Platform and funded by the European Commission, the summit seeks to demonstrate how integrating nature can significantly boost business resilience and competitiveness. It serves as a crucial forum for high-level dialogues and practical discussions.

Participants are focused on identifying critical steps for designing and implementing effective nature strategies across various industries. The agenda includes showcasing innovative opportunities from pioneering businesses and exploring how financial commitments can translate into tangible investments.

europa.eu noted, The summit's core objective is to mobilize the business community towards achieving a nature-positive future, aligning with broader European Union biodiversity goals. This involves moving beyond simply minimizing harm to actively restoring and regenerating ecosystems.

Co-hosted with Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, the EBNS 2025 emphasizes three key themes: accelerating credible business transformation, leveraging circular and bioeconomy solutions, and aligning biodiversity finance. These areas are crucial for sustainable economic development.

europa.eu reported, The event underscores the urgent need to intensify efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goals and reverse nature loss as the 2030 deadline approaches. Restoring nature is presented as both an environmental and economic imperative.

Commissioner Roswall highlighted that investing in nature makes strong business sense, with every euro invested potentially yielding significant returns. Companies at the summit are leading the way in building prosperity through sustainable practices.

• The European Business & Biodiversity Platform (EU B&B Platform), established by the European Commission, plays a central role in mobilizing businesses to integrate biodiversity into their decision-making. It aims to raise awareness, guide companies through policy landscapes, and celebrate business transformation towards nature-positive outcomes. The Platform supports businesses at all stages of their biodiversity journey, offering resources like educational webinars and fostering a network of over 400 member organizations.
• The concept of "nature-positive" goes beyond merely mitigating environmental harm; it actively promotes actions that restore and regenerate ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and increase the resilience of natural systems. Adopting such strategies offers significant business benefits, including risk reduction, improved compliance, enhanced brand reputation, new market opportunities, cost efficiencies, and better talent attraction and retention.
• The European Commission's broader commitment to biodiversity is outlined in its EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, launched in 2020. This ambitious plan aims to put Europe's biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030, with over 100 specific actions. It emphasizes integrating biodiversity criteria into business reporting and corporate governance frameworks, recognizing that more than half of global GDP depends on nature.
• The financial sector's role in this transition is critical, with discussions at the EBNS focusing on aligning financial flows with biodiversity goals. While there is a push for increased investment in nature-based solutions, a 2024 report indicated that European banks have lent approximately €256 billion to corporations whose activities risk climate-critical natural ecosystems since 2015.
• The urgency of the EBNS is underscored by the approaching 2030 targets for halting and reversing nature loss, as well as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed upon at COP15. This global agreement requires businesses to prepare for reporting on nature-related risks, impacts, and dependencies. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 is a key contribution to this international framework.
• The summit highlights that integrating nature can reinforce business resilience and enhance competitiveness. By shifting to nature-positive models, businesses could unlock opportunities worth an estimated $10 trillion annually by 2050, potentially creating 395 million jobs and generating over $10 trillion in new annual business value by 2030. This demonstrates that investing in nature is not just an ethical choice but a sound economic decision.