Shaping the path forward: fostering the transition to regenerative agriculture with OP2B
Insights, opportunities, and tracking efforts toward a regenerative agricultural future: OP2B’s Five-Year Progress Report
Metabolic co-authored the Five-Year Progress Report of OP2B, highlighting the efforts of leading companies in the OP2B coalition to advance regenerative agriculture. The report details key achievements, including investments and existing targets, and assesses the progress of 19 value chain actors of the 26 members of the coalition. Additionally, it identifies critical improvement opportunities for scaling regenerative agriculture, such as aligning projects with ESG targets, setting comprehensive goals for each of the 12 regenerative outcomes, expanding monitoring and evaluation standards, and improving transparency in financing.
- Client: One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B)
- Date: April-July 2024
Regenerative food systems as a mitigation opportunity
Agricultural value chains face pressing challenges from biodiversity loss and climate change to soil degradation and water scarcity. For companies, this means increased risks of resource shortages, price volatility, and supply chain disruptions. Meanwhile, farmers are acutely vulnerable to environmental and economic shocks. To address this, the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) initiative started in 2019 gathering private sector members to steer collaborative action toward regenerative agriculture as a mitigation strategy. This anniversary report highlights five years of progress for the coalition and identifies areas for future focus to scale regenerative agriculture. This report can act as a catalyst for transition and provides a baseline to assess future progress.
Methodology to assess progress toward regenerative agriculture goals
To support the OP2B coalition’s mission, we evaluated 19 out of 26 of the OP2B member companies, using five themes: Outcomes, Targets, Pilots, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Transition finance – and 13 key performance indicators (KPIs). This approach aimed to determine whether companies are adopting a holistic strategy, demonstrating ambition through measurable targets, robust monitoring, and focused investments in the transition to regenerative agriculture. The analysis was exclusively based on publicly shared information (ESG reports) and centered on value chain actors from OP2B member companies (such as Danone, Unilever, and PepsiCo), excluding enablers like financial institutions and knowledge partners. This exclusion was necessary due to their distinct reporting techniques, which would require a different methodology to ensure a fair and consistent assessment.
Key achievements and next steps in regenerative agriculture
The report highlights the significant progress made by OP2B members in advancing regenerative agriculture, with most companies addressing 9 out of 12 key regenerative outcomes and initiating over 72 pilots in 24 countries, involving 300,000 farmers. The majority of targets (77%) are in progress, while €3.6 billion has been invested in regenerative agriculture between 2019 and 2024. Additionally, 84% of members have implemented monitoring and evaluation systems, critical for assessing the impact of their efforts. The report also identifies opportunities for improvement, such as aligning projects with ESG goals, enhancing transparency in financial support for farmers, and expanding monitoring systems beyond carbon metrics, while recommending best practices across all themes to enable the effective scaling of regenerative agriculture initiatives.
- Download the report on OP2B’s website.
"We are pleased to endorse Metabolic for their great work on the OP2B Five-Year Report. Their expertise in sustainability strategy and data analysis was instrumental in clarifying the coalition's impact and providing actionable insights to shape future efforts. The comprehensive report not only highlights the progress made but also sets a strong baseline for tracking regenerative agriculture efforts. Metabolic’s professionalism, collaborative approach, and deep understanding of our goals were key to the project’s success.".
