The $10 Trillion Redirection: When Regulation, Measurement, and Finance Converge

Research shows that the private sector contributes just 18% of nature-positive investment despite controlling the majority of capital. (11) The barrier isn’t conviction – it’s execution. Three specific obstacles prevent capital from flowing to nature-positive solutions at the scale required. Understanding these barriers reveals why ecosystem platforms like Innovate 4 Nature (I4N) have become essential for the transition to a nature-positive economy.

Barrier 1: No One Knows What’s Investable

Corporate sustainability teams are flooded with innovation opportunities. Hundreds of startups claim nature-positive impact. Investors require validated solutions with proven business models. But due diligence is time-consuming and expensive. The result: promising solutions struggle to access capital whilst corporations waste time evaluating potential partners.

This is where ecosystem platforms make a tangible difference through rigourous assessment. I4N’s track record demonstrates scale and momentum. Across the 2024 and 2025 award cycles, over 400 applications from 81 countries each year underwent rigorous nature impact assessment. From these, 150 solutions advanced to evaluate business viability, with 36 finalists presenting to expert juries. The eight winners from both award cycles span materials innovation, climate solutions, biodiversity monitoring, and water technologies.

At Davos, I4N co-hosted the Nature Lunch at the Schatzalp Hotel together with the European Biodiversity Coalition, Nature Wealth Foundation, and biodiversity bridge, where 150 global leaders come together in support of nature-positive leadership. They also witnessed the announcement of the 2025 I4N Award winners:

Courageous Land (agroforestry intelligence platform): Pepijn Looije revealed that 800 users have submitted 250,000 hectares for diagnosis, with $80 million committed to projects. The platform transforms degraded agricultural land into thriving ecosystems whilst maintaining productive output – proving that nature and agriculture aren’t competing priorities but mutually reinforcing systems.

SimplexDNA (biodiversity monitoring): Winner for measuring ecosystems and ecosystem services. Kristy Deiner revealed that SimplexDNA, partnering with Arbimon, launched LUCA: a unified platform synthesising multiple biodiversity databases. Their environmental DNA technology makes ecosystem health assessment faster, cheaper, and more accurate than traditional methods, providing the data infrastructure that investors and regulators increasingly demand.

FieldFactors (nature-as-infrastructure): Winner for nature as infrastructure and planet-compatible cities. Kieran Dartée presented Blue Blocks technology, which captures 95% of rainwater falling on project sites, treats it through natural bio-filtration, stores it in aquifers, and makes it available for reuse – reducing water footprints by up to 80%. The work demonstrates how ecosystems can replace or enhance built infrastructure whilst delivering multiple co-benefits at lower lifecycle costs.

AirXCarbon‘s NetZero Pallets (circular materials): Winner for circular nature-positive solutions. Mia Hoang presented pallets addressing the fact that 80% of global trade moves on pallets, with 95% made from wood – requiring 300 million trees cut annually. Made from agricultural waste including coconut husk, coffee husk, and bagasse purchased directly from farmer cooperatives in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the pallets match wooden and plastic performance whilst costing 20-50% less and saving 70% storage space. According to life cycle assessment, 1,000 pallets capture 30 tonnes of CO2 and save 107 pine trees or 1,500 acacia trees.

The 2024 winners also continue to demonstrate impact at scale: Chemolex converts invasive water hyacinth into bioplastic packaging, reducing costs by 25% whilst boosting sales by up to 70%. Guaro Farms produces essential oils on Ethiopian farms, increasing farmer incomes through regenerative agriculture. rrreefs rebuilds degraded coral reefs, delivering measurable impacts within months whilst providing coastal protection valued at hundreds of millions. Savimbo, created by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, compensates forest guardians for ecosystem preservation through carbon credits and revenue sharing.

The value proposition is clear: systematic vetting transforms a flood of unvalidated claims into a curated portfolio of investable opportunities. But knowing what’s investable isn’t enough if returns remain invisible.

Barrier 2: No One Knows How to Measure Returns

Perhaps the most fundamental shift isn’t in financial instruments but in accounting – measuring how companies depend on and impact natural systems, then incorporating those values into financial statements, risk assessments, and investment decisions. This concept builds on decades of national-level natural capital accounting through the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. What’s new is its application to corporate balance sheets, where the following adopters are demonstrating proof of concept.

Forico’s natural capital accounting revealed ecosystem services worth four times its conventional balance sheet value – a finding that tripled its valuation before a $670 million acquisition in 2023. (12)

Belterra, working with smallholder farmers in Brazil’s Amazon and Atlantic forests, is shifting degraded pastureland to biodiverse agroforestry systems. Modelling suggests that ecosystem services add roughly $3,600 of ‘nature value’ per tonne of cacao beyond the commodity price. (12)

Vale Base Metals is exploring how natural capital accounting reinforces its TNFD commitments by treating natural capital as an intangible asset that safeguards long-term mining viability. The piloted assessment at the Carajás mining complex in Brazil, mapped landscape changes from 1986 to 2023 to understand how conservation actions preserve value. (12)

At Davos, corporate leaders emphasised this transformation. PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta stated: “Growth is our business model, but growth for the long term means that we [must avoid] depleting the resources that will give us future growth.” André Hoffmann crystallised the fundamental challenge in his video address at the Nature Lunch: “How do we put nature onto the balance sheet? That’s the only way to be able to not only defend it but also to regenerate it.” And in his opening remarks at the Nature Lunch, Paul Polman illustrated this with a striking observation: “If we don’t find a way to value a tree that’s alive more than a tree dead, we won’t make it.”

But even with validated solutions and proven returns, deployment still requires operational capacity.

Barrier 3: No One Knows How to Operationalise

Companies know nature matters. They’ve signed TNFD commitments, set targets, and published strategies. Yet the inaugural Corporate Health Check, launched at Davos 2025 by WEF, CDP, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, provides stark evidence of the implementation gap. Just one in 10 companies are embedding Earth-positive decision-making throughout their business models. (13) The gap isn’t conviction – it’s capacity.

Recognising that frameworks require practical support, I4N has launched the ‘It’s Now for Nature’ Accelerator Programme in partnership with Business For Nature. This nine-month programme equips companies with the essential tools, methodologies, and expert consultations to develop science-aligned nature strategies that meet TNFD disclosure requirements. (14)

The accelerator addresses the gap between commitment and capability. Through structured workshops, companies learn to assess their nature dependencies and impacts, set credible targets aligned with the GBF, and develop implementation roadmaps integrated into business operations. Participants gain access to recognised methodologies, expert guidance, and peer learning – building the internal capacity to execute nature-positive transformation.

Combined with access to I4N’s portfolio of 150+ vetted solutions, the accelerator represents both sides of the implementation equation: the strategic capacity to define what needs to happen, and the validated innovations to make it happen.