Business and Ecosystems Issue Brief

This issue brief by the World Resources Institute examines six interconnected ecosystem challenges—water scarcity, climate change, habitat change, biodiversity loss and invasive species, overexploitation of oceans, and nutrient overloading—and their implications for business operations and corporate responses.

• The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), a four-year international scientific appraisal, concluded that human activity has altered ecosystems more extensively and rapidly over the last 50 years than at any other point in human history.
• The MA categorized ecosystem services—the benefits derived by people and businesses—into four types: provisioning (food, water, fiber), regulating (climate, floods, disease, wastes, water quality), cultural (recreational, aesthetic, spiritual), and supporting (soil formation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling). Of the 24 ecosystem services assessed by the MA, the majority were found to be degraded.
• There are six interconnected challenges that specifically concern businesses because they impact ecosystem integrity and the capacity to provide services: water scarcity, climate change, habitat change, biodiversity loss and invasive species, overexploitation of oceans, and nutrient overloading.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Business and Ecosystems Issue Brief. https://www.wri.org/research/business-and-ecosystems-issue-brief

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Business and Ecosystems Issue Brief. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/business-and-ecosystems-issue-brief.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Business and Ecosystems Issue Brief |url=https://www.wri.org/research/business-and-ecosystems-issue-brief |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendbusiness, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Business and Ecosystems Issue Brief}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/business-and-ecosystems-issue-brief}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }