Transformative land investment: How do environmental, social, governance and societal standards add up?

Key messages

• With growing concern over climate, biodiversity and food crises, there is a proliferation of standards, guidelines and principles (simplified here as “standards and guidelines” or just “standards”) aimed at addressing environmental, social, governance and broader societal challenges (the “pillars” of transformative change).
• Across these challenges, different standards and guidelines have multiple priorities and varying concepts of what each pillar encompasses.
• Few initiatives acknowledge or incorporate all four pillars, thereby increasing the potential risk of harm by neglecting trade-offs and overlooking the need for understanding and promoting systemic change.
• Although it is not possible for every standard to “do everything”, investors should identify, assess and plan for the potential consequences and trade-offs; otherwise, “green” projects could impoverish smallholders, and livelihood projects could ignore sustainability, with long-term consequences for both.
• Transformative change in food systems requires investor models that ensure a positive impact, where environmental stewardship, social inclusion, governance and societal issues become part of how investors do business.

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