From risk to resilience: Why biodiversity is our strongest business partner

Louise Vet’s keynote made that point sharply. The transition to a nature-positive economy is not a reputational choice, or a distant sustainability ambition. It is a fundamental economic necessity. Further decline of biodiversity, soil health, and clean water is detrimental to any business in the long run.

The conversation around planetary boundaries can sometimes feel like a warning from the future. But for the global economy, the impact is already here. As we overshoot seven of the nine planetary boundaries, we are not just facing environmental disruption. We are destabilising the ecosystem services that underpin supply chains, from pollination and water filtration to soil fertility and climate regulation.

At Impact Hub, we have been working on this shift for years: helping entrepreneurs and partners design business models that recognise their dependence on nature, and take responsibility for their impact on it. Because the mainstream economy does not need to catch up with a trend. It needs to catch up with reality.

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The statistics are well-known to many in our network: agriculture has claimed nearly half of the world’s forests and wild grasslands, with 77% of that land dedicated to livestock and feed. The current model is increasingly fragile, not only ecologically, but economically.

But where there is systemic fragility, there is also an unparalleled opportunity for innovation.

Protecting nature prevents an estimated $2.7 trillion in annual global economic losses, while also strengthening the long-term stability of the systems our economies depend on. In that sense, biodiversity is not a constraint on business. It is part of the infrastructure that makes business possible.

The question, then, is not simply how we produce more food, more efficiently. It is whether food systems can be designed to restore the conditions they depend on: healthy soils, clean water, resilient landscapes, fair value chains, and biodiversity that is not pushed to the margins, but built into the model.

Across our ecosystem, we see entrepreneurs already working on exactly that shift. These are not abstract examples of “sustainable innovation”. They are practical models that show how biodiversity can become part of the value proposition itself.

Protein diversification
Companies like Favamole and Boon Bonen are transforming our food system by shifting the focus to legumes. These crops act as biological powerhouses by capturing nitrogen and restoring soil health, directly reducing the need for synthetic inputs. They also help diversify protein sources in a food system still heavily dependent on livestock and feed crops.

Landscape-led innovation
Bomenland uses a landscape approach to farming. The venture is working on national infrastructure for agroforestry products, with regional clusters building towards a cooperatively organised Dutch nut and fruit chain. This is not just about producing alternative ingredients. It is about reorganising value chains around landscapes that can keep producing, regenerating, and storing value over time.

Restorative yields
WOEKER develops food products from food forests, showing how production can be designed around biodiversity rather than against it. Their model points to a different understanding of yield: not only output per hectare, but the ability of a system to produce food while also supporting soil, species, water, and resilience.

To accelerate this transition, we need visionary entrepreneurs and forward-thinking financiers who understand that a nature-positive approach is not a niche. It is becoming the basis for resilient companies, supply chains, and portfolios.

At Impact Hub, we are currently preparing new editions of our Food Chain Accelerator and The Regeneration Program. Through these programmes, we support entrepreneurs who are building solutions that work with nature, not against it, and connect them to the partners, funders, and ecosystem actors needed to help that work take root.

If you are building a solution in this space, or looking to invest in those who do, we invite you to get in touch!