A new short film launching today entitled Our Planet: Our Business by conservation and environmental organisation WWF is challenging business leaders to fully recognise the critical link between nature and business prosperity and the critical role the private sector must play in tackling these threats.
Inspired by the hit Our Planet Netflix series, which was produced in collaboration with WWF and made by Silverback Films, the team behind the Our Planet series, the film’s aim is to shine a light on the scale of environmental degradation and threats to business and society and the need for collective, urgent action at scale.
The reasons for making the film are clear: global wildlife populations have declined on average by 60 per cent in less than 50 years[1]. There could be more plastic in the sea than fish, by weight[2], by 2050 and we are losing an area of forest the size of London every week[3]. Natural resources are worth around $125 trillion a year to the global economy[4], but these vital habitats and natural systems – our oceans, forests, rivers and grasslands – are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate.
Colin Butfield, Executive Director of WWF-UK and Conservation Advisor for Our Planet, said:“We won’t achieve real change unless the business community is behind us. The private sector has a key role to play, representing 60 percent of the world’s GDP. The good news is that there is growing support from the business community. The bad news is that there isn’t enough. Businesses, individually and collectively, have a striking role to play.
“After the World Economic Forum meeting, Davos in January and the Our Planet launch in April WWF has been responding to a wave of support from businesses regarding what they can do. This film is the first part of that response. We’re aiming to inspire a business audience and communicate how the business community can affect change – at scale.”
The film features Christiana Figueres, Chief negotiator of the Paris Agreement, Scientist Johan Rockström, Economist Kate Raworth, Dave Lewis, CEO of Tesco, explaining how we all want a world that is thriving, but not at the cost of our planet surviving.
WWF’s companion film, produced by Silverback Films is released at a critical moment. In 2020, world leaders will come together to make a series of critical decisions that could stop the loss of nature, tackle climate change and secure prosperity for business and people on a thriving planet.