Change in Biosphere Integrity
Transgressed: change in biosphere integrity is among the seven boundaries breached in the 2025 Planetary Health Check.
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Biosphere integrity is eroded by land conversion, pollution, extraction and sourcing practices. Those practices come from food, forestry, chemicals, mining and packaging companies. That is why more than 230 investors managing over 30 trillion dollars formed Nature Action 100 to engage the 100 companies deemed most important to reversing nature loss. The initiative's first benchmark found 68 of those companies disclose a commitment to protect nature but only one has fully assessed which of its effects on nature, and which of its reliances on nature, matter enough to change a business decision. Its 2025 status report estimates nature loss across its eight priority sectors costs about 430 billion dollars a year. Shareholder votes on the largest single driver have already worked, with 98 percent support at Bunge on deforestation followed by real monitoring commitments. As You Sow's biodiversity program files shareholder resolutions on deforestation and deep-sea mining, winning commitments from First Solar and General Motors to exclude deep-sea mined minerals from their supply chains. Corporate conduct governs the dominant pressures of habitat conversion, agricultural pollution, and overexploitation. Yet the boundary also depends on protected area designation, species law, enforcement and control of invasives, all of which are governmental. It depends on climate change itself as well. Owners supply a necessary input and can remove documented obstacles, while governments must also act to secure the outcome.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Planetary Health Check 2025, Planetary Boundaries Science Lab / Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 2025-09-24
- At COP16, Nature Action 100 reveals results of its first benchmark assessments of corporate action on nature, Nature Action 100, 2024-10-28
- Nature Action 100 releases its first status report showcasing initiative progress and investor insights, Nature Action 100, 2025-10-28
- Bunge to Strengthen No-Deforestation Efforts in the Amazon, Cerrado, Green Century Capital Management, 2024-04-29
- Biodiversity Program, As You Sow, accessed 2026-08-28
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Files shareholder proposals asking companies to adopt policies excluding deep-sea mined minerals from their supply chains, winning a commitment from First Solar in 2025.
Coordinates more than 230 investors with over 30 trillion dollars in assets engaging 100 companies in nature-critical sectors, and published a first benchmark in October 2024 finding 68 companies disclose a nature commitment but only one a comprehensive materiality assessment.
Filed the 2021 Bunge proposal on eliminating deforestation and native vegetation conversion from its soy supply chain, which won 98 percent support.
98% of Bunge shareholders back proposal to reduce deforestation, Mongabay, 2021-05
5 campaigns on record
Establish a policy excluding minerals from deep seabed mining from its supply chain.
Result: Withdrawn after agreement
First Solar committed to exclude deep seabed minerals from its supply chain until scientific findings are sufficient to assess the environmental risks.
Conduct nature-related materiality assessments, set measurable targets, integrate nature into corporate strategy and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Result: First benchmark: 68 of 100 companies disclose a commitment to protect nature, 47 disclose targets, and one disclosed a comprehensive materiality assessment
Disclose its policies on the use of deep-sea mined minerals across its supply chain.
Result: 12 percent in favor
As You Sow described the result as qualifying for refiling.
General Motors Shareholders Support First-Ever Deep-Sea Mining Proposal, As You Sow, 2024-06
Recognize water as a financial risk and meet six corporate expectations covering water-quantity management, water-quality protection, ecosystem protection, sanitation access, board oversight, and responsible water-related public policy engagement, by 2030.
With Mercy Investment Services, other institutional investor signatories
Result: not a proxy vote; an ongoing multi-year engagement and annual benchmarking effort
Chipotle and Domino's Pizza are cited by Mercy Investment Services as companies that had already made commitments under the initiative as of 2023; Ceres publishes an annual benchmark tracking company progress.
Strengthen non-deforestation policies by adopting a suspend-then-engage approach for suppliers linked to deforestation and a 2020 cutoff date for soy from the Brazilian Cerrado.
With Storebrand Asset Management
Result: 98 percent in favor
Bunge committed to produce a report aligned with the requests in the proposal.
98% of Bunge shareholders back proposal to reduce deforestation, Mongabay, 2021-05
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Doughnut Economics's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.