The recent synchronization of nature frameworks and metrics is a welcome development for companies that have found it challenging to develop nature and biodiversity targets.
The revisions translate the high-level recommendations in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — adopted in 2022 at the United Nations’ biennial conference on biodiversity — into suggestions that are more practical for companies. The releases were timed to the latest UN biodiversity gathering, from Oct. 19 to 30 in Yerevan, Armenia.
Three organizations work on translating the United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework into a playbook for businesses:
- The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) guides corporate commitments.
- The Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) helps businesses and investors assess and disclose nature risks.
- The Nature Positive Initiative (NPI) develops measurement metrics.
“The growing alignment between TNFD, SBTN and the Nature Positive Initiative is a positive sign that the nature landscape is becoming more coherent and easier for companies to navigate,” said Eva Zabey, CEO of Business for Nature, a nonprofit coalition.
“The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework sets important global goals for nature, but businesses can find it challenging to translate these high-level ambitions, such as halting nature loss by 2030, into tangible, day-to-day action,” said Simon Graham, head of climate and nature with U.K. power company Drax Group, which has piloted the NPI metrics. “It can seem daunting for an individual sustainability professional or a team, and the language doesn’t always align with the language of business or with our colleagues in procurement or finance, for example.”
Common agenda: Simplify the process
SBTN, TNFD and NPI have intentionally aligned their work to help reduce the “overwhelm” that early corporate adopters of nature frameworks have experienced, said SBTN CEO Erin Billman.
“This is our effort to help companies embed the strategies with greater consistency and confidence,” Billman said.
From a collective standpoint:
- The revisions enable companies to cross-reference the frameworks, reducing duplicative work and enabling them to use the same data.
- They add recognition for new types of projects that companies are already funding, including those related to land regeneration.
- And, coming soon, the Global Reporting Initiative, the disclosure and reporting system used by a majority of large corporations, is planning closer alignment, notably for the new NPI metrics approach.
What’s new from SBTN
Science-Based Targets for Nature 2.0 adds more pathways for corporations to declare commitments related to conservation and biodiversity, by including projects that might not previously have counted toward targets, such as working land regeneration initiatives.
“More practical doesn’t mean there’s a lower bar,” Billman said.
The revision — which applies only to freshwater and land strategies — also offers clearer recommendations related to supplier engagement and a template for transition plans that provide a long-term view of how they’re reducing nature dependencies.
Another signal businesses should appreciate: the overhaul represents the last major update for the framework. Future updates will focus on “targeted refinements,” the organization said.
SBTN plans to organize a cohort of companies seeking to advance nature-related targets in early 2027, Billman said. Support has been building slowly: as of September, close to three dozen companies were working toward nature goals validated by SBTN.
Feedback-driven revisions for TNFD
TNFD’s guidance is called LEAP, which stands for Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare. TNFD LEAP version 2.0 is the first major update since the initial release in September 2023, and it incorporates recommendations gathered during three beta releases. Big changes include:
- Considerations for environmental crimes
- Guidance for measuring invasive species
- Additional pointers for financial institutions evaluating their investment portfolios
- Suggestions for how nature should be considered within broader corporate transition plans
The biggest change from NPI
NPI collaborated with 500 subject-matter experts and practitioners from 29 companies to collapse more than 600 nature metrics into four categories:
- Ecosystem extent, which answers the question of whether a place is shrinking or expanding
- Ecosystem condition, including whether it’s improving or declining
- Species extinction risk
- Species populations
The new approach has been integrated into the SBTN and TNFD revisions.
NPI’s pilot improved Drax’s understanding of how nature could directly affect the power company’s business by streamlining the assessment process, Graham said.
“We also identified challenges regarding the time and resources needed to understand scientifically how positive and negative trends in nature can be measured accurately over time across a wide variety of potential measurement approaches,” he said.
Drax supports 10 “nature-positive” commitments as part of its broader sustainability framework, including a pledge to develop a group water strategy by the end of 2026, covering efficiency, reduced consumption and improved quality.