The automotive industry is increasingly recognizing that nature and biodiversity are integral to long-term business resilience, with resources, water, land, and stable ecosystems underpinning every stage of vehicle production. While carbon and energy management have become familiar parts of corporate strategy, nature remains far more challenging to operationalize, particularly for the many small and mid-sized suppliers that form the industry’s backbone.
Overview
Key opportunity areas highlighted through SP member engagement include:
Governance: Clear policies and cross-functional alignment to enable consistent, repeatable action.
Sites & Landscapes: Native vegetation, green infrastructure, and improved land management that reduce maintenance costs and support innovative storm water management.
Materials & Resources: Procurement and waste strategies that reduce upstream nature risk and align with OEM circularity expectations.
Within the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP), a member-driven collaboration of leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers, companies expressed a clear desire to move beyond symbolic commitments and toward structured, actionable nature programs. Yet many teams, especially those with limited land control, constrained budgets, or decentralized sustainability roles, found it difficult to determine where to begin.
In response—through SP’s Nature-Based Solutions Working Group—Fresh Coast supported members in developing the SP Nature Strategy Playbook, a practical, right-sized guide that translates complex biodiversity expectations into feasible actions aligned with the operational realities of automotive sites.
Across the SP membership, companies expressed strong interest in advancing nature-related action, yet many struggled to convert that interest into practical, repeatable steps. Despite wide variation in size, geographic reach, and sustainability maturity, organizations consistently described similar challenges that slowed progress. Members noted uncertainty around where to begin, as most available guidance focuses on large-scale restoration or complex assessments that do not align with leased, space-constrained, or tightly controlled sites. Many also found it difficult to articulate the business value of nature-based solutions, since benefits such as flood mitigation and improved stormwater performance are preventive and not easily captured in traditional ROI models. Fragmented internal ownership further complicated efforts, with responsibilities spread across EHS, sustainability, facilities, procurement, and construction, resulting in siloed decisions and inconsistent adoption of tools like Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT), or Wildlife Habitat Council frameworks. Funding constraints and limited internal expertise added additional barriers, particularly when teams lacked confidence in interpreting ecological data, evaluating site opportunities, or maintaining native landscapes.
As a result, many SP members were aligned in principle but uncertain how to turn nature commitments into credible, actionable, and scalable programs. The Playbook aims to close this gap by translating emerging expectations into practical pathways that reflect the operational realities of the automotive value chain.
To ensure the Playbook addressed real operational needs, Fresh Coast conducted interviews with OEMs and suppliers across the SP network. These conversations revealed three common engagement profiles that capture how organizations are currently approaching nature-related action:
Getting Started
Teams with small, symbolic projects, such as pollinator gardens, beehives, or no-mow zones, typically championed by a single motivated employee and lacking broader guidance or alignment.
Emerging Practitioners
Organizations beginning to use tools like the IBAT, reference nature in ESG disclosures, or explore restoration opportunities, but still uncertain how to interpret data, scale efforts, or embed nature into core processes.
Integrated Leaders
Companies, often in adjacent sectors such as mining, materials, or advanced manufacturing—where nature considerations are already connected to risk assessments, funding decisions, procurement expectations, and cross-functional planning.
These profiles are not maturity “tiers.” Instead, they serve as practical entry points that reflect where companies genuinely are today. Organizations may fall into different profiles across different topics (risk assessment, restoration, green infrastructure, or supply chain), and progress is rarely linear. The Playbook uses these entry points to help companies identify realistic next steps based on their operational context, resources, and internal priorities.
A consistent theme across member discussions was that nature-related work gains real traction when it is framed as a business decision rather than an environmental add-on. The Playbook builds on this insight by linking nature actions to operational realities already familiar to automotive manufacturers and suppliers, demonstrating where nature-based strategies can reduce risk, strengthen compliance, and improve site performance.
Strengthening governance emerged as a foundational need across the membership. Clear policies, leadership alignment, and coordinated responsibilities across sustainability, EHS, facilities, and procurement help shift nature work from isolated initiatives to repeatable, scalable programs. Members also emphasized the practical value of improving terrestrial and aquatic landscapes. Native vegetation, green infrastructure, and enhanced land management were widely seen as low-cost opportunities to reduce maintenance demands, support stormwater compliance, and contribute to healthier site ecosystems.
Integrating materials and resource considerations into procurement and waste strategies further enables companies to manage upstream risk and align with evolving OEM expectations around circularity and nature-positive performance. Together, these themes underscore a central conclusion: nature-based solutions are not peripheral. They are practical, operational levers that strengthen resilience and competitiveness across the automotive value chain.
The SP Nature Strategy Playbook was developed to make nature-focused action more accessible, credible, and achievable for automotive manufacturers and suppliers. Built from member insights and grounded in operational realities, it offers a clear pathway from early, low-cost actions to more integrated strategies. Fresh Coast’s role was to help synthesize the challenges, identify practical solutions, and structure them into a guide that reflects the collective experience of the SP community. The result is a resource designed to support ongoing progress, helping companies turn commitment into meaningful action for nature, water, and long-term business resilience.
