The Overview Effect gives the keys to evolving businesses in the decade of regeneration

The Overview Effect has underlined the importance of investing in business innovation in the "decade of regeneration", through proposals that bring together innovation and digitalisation for a new conception of business. Indra's Minsait company, which promotes innovation to increase the sustainability of companies and contribute to the major social and environmental challenges facing organisations, defends the need to commit to new initiatives that allow them to prosper in an environment that is no longer so much sustainable as regenerative. The paradigm has changed.  

"The articulating vision of business objectives is beginning to move from sustainability to regeneration. We have to move from complying with regulations and being less harmful to being regenerative and promoting solutions to these environmental challenges", says Adela Conchado, climate specialist at The Overview Effect and author of the report "Mission, Climate and Biodiversity", in which other experts such as Alicia Carvajal, from Dark Matter Labs; Álvaro López-Peña, CEO of ALP-Sustainable Energy; and Jesús Iglesias, co-founder of Social and ambassador of the European Climate Pact, have also participated. 

The Overview Effect's Climate and Biodiversity paper explains the framework for business action to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. Scientific evidence already shows imbalances in the natural systems that support current forms of life on Earth, including the human species.  

Among the data identified by the company, some truly shocking facts stand out:

• 75% of the land surface and 66% of the ocean surface are significantly altered by human action.

• 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production.

• Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the world's land area.

• 500 billion euros in annual global crops are at risk from the loss of pollinators. 

• 100-300 million people are at increased risk from floods and hurricanes due to loss of coastal habitats and protection. 

• 300-400 million tonnes of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other wastes from industrial facilities are dumped annually into the world's waters.

"Doing less harm is no longer an option. We need greater ambition. We need our operations to not only stop adding to the degradation of ecosystems, but to contribute positively to their recovery and progressive improvement. We must move from avoiding damage to generating solutions and evolve towards regenerative business models", warns Adela Conchado. 

"All the scientific evidence confirms the situation of ecological crisis on a planetary scale in which we are immersed and, in response, companies are responding with increasing ambition, rigour and deployment of actions. Now, however, we need to go further," says the expert from The Overview, who also believes that there are indications that the thinking on natural capital and biodiversity will be based on the lessons learned in the climate field to accelerate business action in the coming years. 

The Overview Effect is working on innovation proposals to address these challenges in three very specific areas: Climate Action, Ecosystem Regeneration and Water and Oceans. 

To accompany the first of these, the company identifies lines of action that move towards carbon neutrality; that help a clean and fair energy transition or facilitate climate adaptation, increasing the resilience of ecological, social and economic systems. For ecosystem regeneration, The Overview Effect is committed to incentivising the protection of natural habitats and species; boosting biodiversity and restoring degraded ecosystems. In terms of water and oceans, the company identifies specific innovation possibilities in areas such as efficiency and recovery of water use; protection of marine resources; ocean acidification; or against overexploitation and pollution of resources. 

Among the proposals already designed for this purpose, The Overview has conceptualised Positive, a solution that allows the Consumer sector to commit to "climate-positive" products and services, which include measures for the reduction and absorption of emissions. The company has also made progress in the prototyping of a platform that promotes regenerative projects in the territory by connecting all the agents involved and facilitating the consideration of the impact on carbon absorption; the promotion of biodiversity and the socio-economic development of those regions in which it operates. 

"There was a time when talking about sustainability was equated in the business environment with minimising negative impact. But it is no longer enough. We must move towards regenerative products and services that, beyond preventing damage, allow us to act on it and offer a truly differential value proposition", concludes the head of The Overview Effect.