Daria Koreniushkina, Rainforest Alliance: Protecting biodiversity through EUDR compliance (original) (raw)

Daria Koreniushkina, from the Rainforest Alliance, highlights the crucial role of businesses in addressing the climate crisis and protecting biodiversity. Emphasising the importance of the upcoming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which will take effect on December 30, 2024, and its impact on business.

Tell us a bit about what you do and your career to date. How did you end up working in sustainability?

My name is Daria Koreniushkina and I am leading the corporate communications team at the Rainforest Alliance – a global non-profit organisation working at the intersection of business, agriculture, and forests to create a better future for people and nature. You might know us because of our little green frog which appears on 42,000 products such as coffee, tea, chocolate and bananas. I have been working there for seven years.

Before joining the Rainforest Alliance, I spent three transformative years at Fairphone—a Dutch social enterprise behind the world’s most sustainable smartphone. I must say that I wasn’t looking specifically for sustainability jobs when I came across Fairphone, but after I joined I quickly realised that there was no way back: I felt so much more fulfilled knowing that my work creates positive impact and contributes to the mission I believe in.

What do you see as the most pressing sustainability challenges facing businesses today, and how can these be addressed through innovation and collaboration?

Climate change is undoubtedly the most urgent threat to our future. And it is closely connected to rapidly increasing biodiversity loss, systemic rural poverty, and widespread human rights abuses. Agriculture fuels the climate crisis as it drives almost 90% of deforestation and is responsible for nearly 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So reducing harm is no longer enough. Companies must invest in regenerative practices that help restore landscapes and keep more carbon in the soil than they extract, driving us toward a net-positive future.

At the Rainforest Alliance, we believe that markets have the power to become the fastest and most scalable solution to the collapse of critical ecosystems. Collaboration is key: no one can do this alone, and everyone should play their part. Companies should purchase from certified sources as part of a responsible supply chain and support farmers in their transition to regenerative practices. Alongside companies, funders should invest in regenerating critical landscapes. And millions of individuals should take everyday actions to have a collective positive impact on our planet.

Businesses should integrate these pillars into their core strategies, ensuring that each decision considers its environmental, social, and economic impacts. It’s important to assess sustainability risks facing your business properly. Once you’ve mapped these risks, you can prioritise the most urgent areas to address and find projects and tools to invest in.

Part of our work at the Rainforest Alliance includes helping companies assess the risks in their supply chains and identify projects to mitigate those risks. We’re also one of the organisations behind the Accountability Framework —a globally respected roadmap to achieving responsible supply chains.

How important is ESG in today’s business landscape? Can you discuss the role of ESG in risk management and investment decisions?

ESG is crucial in today’s business landscape as it helps identify and mitigate non-financial risks that could impact a company’s reputation and financial performance. Investors increasingly use ESG criteria to assess the long-term viability and ethical impact of their investments, which leads to more sustainable and responsible investment portfolios.

How do you see the evolving regulatory landscape impacting businesses’ sustainability efforts? What are the key challenges and opportunities?

The way we see it at the Rainforest Alliance is that there are more opportunities than challenges in the regulatory landscape. Compliance with new regulations can be complex and costly for companies. However, these regulations drive innovation, improve transparency, and can lead to competitive advantages for businesses that proactively adopt more sustainable practices and go beyond compliance.

Recently, there has been a lot of emphasis on EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which is scheduled to come into effect at the end of this year. The sectors impacted by the legislation are rushing to ensure they can be compliant with this ambitious new legislation, but there are many challenges, especially around traceability.

We find that the companies who are best-positioned to comply with EUDR are the ones who have been investing in sustainability and traceability as a business objective and not just to meet the legislative requirement. Companies who are focused on mere compliance find themselves behind, while those who have invested in sustainability are poised to meet the regulatory requirements.

How can companies effectively communicate their sustainability efforts to stakeholders? What role does storytelling play in building trust and reputation?

Transparency is key to effective communication: clearly reporting on sustainability goals, progress, and outcomes. Sustainability is never an end state, it’s a journey. So it’s OK to communicate about something that is not perfect yet, as long as you’re open and clear about the steps your company has already taken, how they lead to achieving your sustainability goals, and what challenges you’re still facing.

Storytelling plays a key role here. Sustainability communications are often very technical and jargony, while really it’s all about people and nature —something any human can relate to and understand. So telling stories of how people and nature benefit from your sustainability efforts definitely helps to make it real and tangible.

This is why, as the Rainforest Alliance, we put a lot of effort into our annual report that regularly wins awards and share a lot of our stories on our website, LinkedIn or Instagram, and with the press. This way, we can reach a broad audience and inspire people to join our alliance and drive change.

Companies can measure the social impact of their CSR initiatives by first defining what success looks like, secondly using metrics and qualitative and quantitative data. There is so much technology being developed, some in use today, which will help us gather better data and insights on the ground, such as real-time sensors measuring soil health or AI tools to monitor and prevent deforestation.

In the Rainforest Alliance certification program, we work together with farmers and companies, supporting them to collect and use data to improve their risk analysis, measure progress along their sustainability journey, and support future claims.

In your opinion, what are the key trends shaping the sustainability landscape in Europe, and how will these impact businesses in the coming years?

I see trends like focus on decarbonisation, closing the green finance gap, shifting to regenerative agriculture and other nature-based solutions as key trends in the coming years. In food, agriculture, and forestry sectors specifically, changes are driven by global initiatives, like the UN’s Global Biodiversity Framework, stricter EU legislations and the COP28 Joint Statement on Climate, Nature, and People.

Stricter EU regulations like EUDR and CSDDD are already having an impact on businesses. At the Rainforest Alliance we’re evolving our certification to meet these growing expectations, to ensure farmers and companies retain market access for certified products.

How do you see the future of sustainability evolving in the next 5-10 years?

As Santiago Gowland, our CEO at the Rainforest Alliance, says: “The companies who will be successful in the future are those who give more than they take, who are truly ‘net-positive’ for people and nature”.

In the next 5-10 years, sustainability will become even more integrated into business strategies, driven by innovation, stricter regulations, and increasing demand from consumers and shareholders.

How can attendees apply your insights to their own sustainability journey?

It depends on where your company is in their sustainability journey. If it’s a beginning, start by assessing your current sustainability risks and identify how you can address the most urgent risks and collect basic data for compliance. If your company is already more advanced, think how you can use this as a competitive advantage and differentiate in your market. And if you aim to be a sustainability frontrunner, look at how you can raise the bar further and tell this story loud and clear.

“Recently, there has been a lot of emphasis on EUDR, which is scheduled to come into effect at the end of this year. The sectors impacted by the legislation are rushing to ensure they can be compliant with this ambitious new legislation, but there are many challenges, especially around traceability.

Don’t miss Daria Koreniushkina speaking at the upcoming Sustainability Expo Europe. Taking place on October 1-2, this 2-day event will bring together over 500 senior sustainability professionals, sharing insights into the essential actions businesses must take to achieve sustainability. Register your place now.