This paper introduces a new proprietary measure of a firm's negative impact on biodiversity, the corporate biodiversity footprint, and studies whether it is priced in the cross-section of stock returns. Using an international sample of firms, we find no evidence that the biodiversity footprint explains these returns, on average.
However, event-study evidence shows that, following the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), which raised awareness of biodiversity issues, firms with larger corporate biodiversity footprints lost value. This response is consistent with investors revising their valuation of these firms downward upon the prospect that regulations to preserve biodiversity will become more stringent.
There is an ongoing debate about how proxy advisory firms affect corporate decisions. A major concern is that shareholders seeking to save costs use a...