title: Improving global environmental management with standard corporate reporting.
abstract: Multinational corporations play a prominent role in shaping the environmental trajectory of the planet. The integration of environmental costs and benefits into corporate decision-making has enormous, but as yet unfulfilled, potential to promote sustainable development. To help steer business decisions toward better environmental outcomes, corporate reporting frameworks need to develop scientifically informed standards that consistently consider land use and land conversion, clean air (including greenhouse gas emissions), availability and quality of freshwater, degradation of coastal and marine habitats, and sustainable use of renewable resources such as soil, timber, and fisheries. Standardization by itself will not be enough--also required are advances in ecosystem modeling and in our understanding of critical ecological thresholds. With improving ecosystem science, the opportunity for realizing a major breakthrough in reporting corporate environmental impacts and dependencies has never been greater. Now is the time for ecologists to take advantage of an explosion of sustainability commitments from business leaders and expanding pressure for sustainable practices from shareholders, financial institutions, and consumers.
authors.affiliation: The Nature Conservancy, Seattle WA 98105; pkareiva@tnc.org.
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Kareiva
authors.affiliation: The Nature Conservancy, San Francisco, CA 94110;
authors.forename: Brynn W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: McNally
authors.affiliation: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Los Altos, CA 94022;
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McCormick
authors.affiliation: 202 Scott Street, Mill Valley, CA 94941; and.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruckelshaus
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D003020:Clothing; D003132:Commerce; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D003657:Decision Making; D004463:Ecology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment
keywords: ESG reporting; corporate sustainability; ecosystem services; multinational corporations; natural capital