The WBA Nature Benchmark measures and ranks the world's most influential companies on their efforts to protect the environment and its biodiversity, tracking how companies are reducing their negative impacts on nature and contributing to the protection and restoration of ecosystems, aligned with the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The 2026 edition assessed 750 companies across multiple sectors including agro-food, forestry, building, tourism and the blue economy. The benchmark is developed in close collaboration with an Expert Review Committee and partners including GRI, SBTN, and TNFD, with a methodology designed to incentivise companies to understand where nature-related risks are highest and act to halt damaging trends, while keeping human rights and social impacts at its core.
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The world generates more than 2 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with at
least 33% of it not managed in an environmentally safe manner. Without urgent action, global waste
is projected to increase by 70% by 2050, reaching 3.4 billion tonnes annually (World Bank, 2018). This
growing problem poses significant environmental and health risks. Companies must adopt and
demonstrate comprehensive waste management strategies to address this critical issue. This indicator encompasses multiple forms of waste.
The company must report quantitative metrics related to its total waste generation, including hazardous waste, non-hazardous waste and other material categories, where relevant, with clear categorical distinctions. The following categories are deemed potentially material for the listed industries.
Plastic waste:
Agricultural Products: Use of plastic in agriculture (e.g., plastic mulch) and packaging can be significant.
Apparel & Footwear: Use of synthetic fibers (often plastic-based) and packaging can make plastic waste material.
Chemicals: Plastics production and waste management are directly tied to this industry.
Containers & Packaging: Plastic waste is central to this industry due to packaging materials.
Food Production: Packaging waste, especially single-use plastics, is a major concern in this sector.
Food Retailers: Packaging, including plastic bags and containers, is a significant issue.
Freight & Logistics: Plastic is widely used in packaging, shipping materials, and single-use plastics.
Personal & Household Products: High reliance on plastic packaging.
Retail: Plastic packaging and consumer waste are critical concerns here.
Food waste:
Agricultural Products
Food Production
Food Retailers
Tailings:
Metals & Mining: This industry generates tailings from extraction and processing of materials.
Additionally, a company might report on other specific types of waste that it explicitly identifies as material to their operations.
Material categories other than hazardous waste will be revised on a case-by-case basis.
Reporting must cover the company’s entire operations. Datapoint must be from the most recent reporting period. Intensity metrics are not accepted.