On 16 June 2026, Innovate 4 Nature and PwC Switzerland hosted a breakout session at the swisscleantech Dialog 2026 in Zurich: “From Risk to Resilience – Successfully Implementing Nature-Based Strategies in Business.” The session was full, and the message was clear: nature is becoming a strategic business issue.
The session combined the exclusive first presentation of the findings from our joint paper with PwC Switzerland, ‘Nature Positive: From Resilience to Value Creation’, with parallel group discussions led by Breitling, IKEA Switzerland, Migros, PwC, and Innovate 4 Nature. Here are the key takeaways.
Where Swiss companies stand today
Our joint paper with PwC Switzerland is based on two complementary evidence bases: a TNFD 2025 analysis of public disclosure across the 100 largest Swiss-headquartered companies done by I4N affiliate engageability, and the I4N & PwC “From Resilience to Solutions” survey of 41 Swiss-active companies across 14 sectors. Both show a familiar pattern: awareness is rising faster than action.
Companies are also still oriented towards risk rather than opportunity. 80.5% identify supply chains as a hotspot, and most companies have identified impacts (73%) and risks (66%). Far fewer have moved on to turning these insights into business opportunities (56%) or innovation (54%), even though 71% say they are open to co-creation. Water emerged as the one issue that cuts across every sector.
This points to three structural gaps: companies are stronger at identifying risk than building strategy; they publish metrics faster than they develop solutions; and board-level ownership lags well behind operational practice.
From compliance to business case
The shift the paper calls for, and that the room engaged with directly, is a shift from disclosure to action: from a data focus that risks staying in sustainability reports without strategic impact, to nature as an active driver of value; from risk orientation and damage control to nature as a genuine competitive advantage; from siloed ESG ownership to governance that treats nature as a board-level topic, supported by scalable, concrete solutions.
The regulatory backdrop makes this more urgent, not less. Between the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Switzerland’s own biodiversity strategy, packaging and product disclosure rules under the EU’s circular economy agenda, the Swiss Federal Council’s draft sustainability due diligence law (aligning with the EU’s CSDDD), CSRD/ESRS reporting requirements, and FINMA Circular 2026/1 on climate- and nature-related risk for banks and insurers, the direction of travel is unambiguous.
What we heard in the room
The five parallel breakout discussions, led by Breitling, IKEA Switzerland, Migros, PwC, and Innovate 4 Nature, brought the data to life with practical experience from companies actually doing this work.
Breitling shared a simple, three-step approach to getting started: identify your material topics through a double materiality assessment, locate where those impacts are actually happening using available hotspot-mapping tools, and then define concrete, actionable steps. Breitling’s own starting point was solid data on water impact from gold extraction, a reminder that the way in is often wherever you already have good information, not a perfect starting picture.
Migros discussed the move from Science Based Targets (SBTi) to Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN), expected to be validated by the end of the year. The group was candid about the scale of additional work involved: unlike carbon, where a tonne of emissions is a tonne of emissions everywhere, nature impacts are highly location-specific, and the data and methodology are still maturing. Even so, SBTN offers a structured way to prioritise, build comparability across companies, and translate existing board buy-in on climate targets into nature targets. As Migros put it, it matters that large companies start now, so the broader industry can follow.
IKEA Switzerland focused on localising a global biodiversity strategy for the Swiss market, where Scope 3 is less dominant than for the business overall. The team built a simple “biodiversity score” tool designed for store-level use, without requiring specialist expertise, and discussed prioritisation across resources and sectors. A recurring theme: progress accelerates when nature work can be tied to a financial business case, for example linking reduced heat around stores to lower cooling and landscaping costs.
PwC ran a business-case exercise on what it actually takes to convince a board. The group identified the components that need to come together: management conviction, client and investor expectations, innovation access through venture capital, supply chain cost and data linkages, and the language of resilience. The clearest signal: framing nature in terms boards already use, costs, risk, resilience, lands far better than framing it as a new, separate topic.
Innovate 4 Nature focused on nature-positive solutions for resilient value chains, drawing on the same risk-to-opportunity journey companies like Breitling and IKEA Switzerland are now navigating as participants in our accelerator programme. The discussion underlined a pattern across the room: most companies are still anchored in risk thinking, even though that is precisely where the opportunity lies. Our accelerator programme guides companies through this journey over nine months: assessing nature dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities; setting science-based targets; matching startup-led, nature-positive solutions to specific industry needs; and finally embedding the results in governance, disclosure, and communication.
What comes next
The day closed with a clear call to action. The second cohort of the “It’s Now for Nature” Accelerator Programme starts soon and is a clear first step from risk to solutions. Over nine months, participating companies move through four stages, assess, commit, transform, and disclose, supported by structured workshops running from late summer 2026 through to mid-2027. Participants gain a science-based, regulation-aligned nature strategy, preparation for TNFD and CSRD reporting, and direct exchange with peers and experts.
Carsten Bopp of swisscleantech closed the session with a reflection that captured the spirit of the day: an association founded on climate is increasingly finding that climate and nature cannot be separated. Humans are part of nature, not external to it, and the projects now emerging, from vertical greening in dense urban developments to nature-integrated infrastructure, show that this shift is already underway.
Want to go deeper?
If you couldn’t join us in the room, the paper ‘Nature Positive: From Resilience to Value Creation’ is available to download, and we’re hosting a webinar with PwC Switzerland on 2 July 2026 (11:00–12:00 CEST) to walk through the findings in more detail.
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