A Practical Guide for Business & Nature

The document argues that traditional sustainability practices are insufficient for managing the 'risk multiplier' effect of climate change. It advocates for a shift toward 'socio-ecological resilience,' where businesses protect the natural systems and communities they depend on to ensure long-term viability. WWF proposes a four-step methodology: assessing risk through a landscape lens, developing strategies for change using scenario planning, implementing nature-friendly local solutions, and employing adaptive management. Central to this approach are three principles: avoiding harm to nature, using nature to help people, and building resilience for nature itself.

• Climate change acts as a risk multiplier, making traditional sustainability strategies—which often assume stable systems—insufficient for ensuring corporate health and resilience.
• The economic risk of climate change is systemic and vast, with one valuation estimating the global stock of manageable assets at risk between $4.2 trillion and $43 trillion by the end of the century.
• Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are an underutilized but cost-effective tool for building resilience, though they must be stress-tested against climate projections to avoid failure, such as planting mangroves without accounting for sea-level rise.
• Corporate resilience depends on the health of the broader socio-ecological system; companies risk losing their 'social license to operate' if they ignore the climate impacts on the communities and ecosystems providing their workforce and resources.
• WWF proposes a four-step process for building resilience: 1) Assess Risk by assembling knowledge and planning for change; 2) Develop a strategy to manage for change; 3) Implement local, nature-friendly solutions; and 4) Monitor, evaluate, and adaptively manage.
• Effective risk management requires moving beyond traditional Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), which often treats risks in isolation, toward scenario planning and 'decision-scaling' to identify robust actions that work across multiple potential futures.

APA

Kuhn, D., Martin, S., & Bartlett, R. (n.d.). A Practical Guide for Business & Nature. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/704/60foosfli9_WWF_RisingtoResilience_HR_rev.pdf

Chicago

Kuhn, David, Shaun Martin, and Ryan Bartlett. A Practical Guide for Business & Nature. WWF International, n.d. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/704/60foosfli9_WWF_RisingtoResilience_HR_rev.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kuhn |first1=David |last2=Martin |first2=Shaun |last3=Bartlett |first3=Ryan |title=A Practical Guide for Business & Nature |publisher=WWF International |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/704/60foosfli9_WWF_RisingtoResilience_HR_rev.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kuhnndpractical, author = {Kuhn, David and Martin, Shaun and Bartlett, Ryan}, title = {{A Practical Guide for Business \& Nature}}, institution = {WWF International}, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/704/60foosfli9_WWF_RisingtoResilience_HR_rev.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }