Navigating the nature framework jungle: What SBTN means for your company

This article was jointly authored by Nathalie Gr?fke , Winnie Yeh , Thomas Wagner , Barnabas Harrison , Swasti Saraogi , Nishtha Maloo and Alexander Holst

It may seem like just another one in the sustainability alphabet soup, but SBTN has been drumming up attention. The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) guides companies and cities alike to operate within environmental and social boundaries through setting science-based targets that transform their impact on air, water, land, biodiversity, oceans, and – integrated from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), climate. SBTN released its first technical guidance focused on freshwater and land use in May 2023, which was immediately being piloted by 17 companies and will finally be open for target submission later this year. There has been much excitement in the corporate and civil society world alike for this new toolkit, and already many companies are wondering if and when they should set their own targets for nature.

Climbing up the priority ladder: How to address the rising topic of nature & biodiversity

The topic of nature and biodiversity is rapidly gaining attention in corporate sustainability. The release of the SBTN draft guidance for nature targets is a significant step in enabling businesses having internal ambition level discussions on science-based goals, building upon the high level of awareness and buy-in of the SBTi for climate.

With the increased attention now, we are hearing companies ask some similar questions:

?? Should we commit and set nature targets now, in addition to other sustainability targets?

?? How can we prioritize issues within nature to progress the topic, despite our resource limitations?

?? How should we measure and communicate our organization’s progress in consideration of global commitments to halt and reverse natural degradation by 2030?

Is my business ready to set science-based targets for nature?

Working with our clients across the globe, we have largely observed two key mindsets:

1. The “Let’s do it all!” group of early adopters that aim to follow all frameworks at once, vs.

2. The “Where do we even start!?” camp that is currently unsure about the financial value of what to start with.

Our take from this: Let’s meet in the middle and identify the right big or small steps for each business to advance its nature journey, beginning today. Depending on a company’s nature maturity, this could be to follow SBTN’s guidance in full to assess its nature impact, prioritize hotspots, determine baselines and set targets, or to first build the necessary level of nature-related data, along with internal awareness and leadership buy-in on the topic.

Where to begin: Understanding your business’ nature maturity

For Level 0 or Level 1

Then now is your time! In this dynamic environment with new nature initiatives emerging at global and local scale, the stage is set to take nature and biodiversity to the corporate board and secure resources to address the topic strategically. The business case might not be initially obvious, but external pressures and risks are mounting, cross-industry networks are forming, and opportunities are unfolding for businesses in every sector. All it takes initially is to run an impact and dependency screening and identify the hotspots of your interactions with nature, and what they mean for the business. We promise – it will be an eye opener for many, in your team and beyond.

For Level 2 or Level 3

Now that you have secured leadership buy-in, budget and access to internal or external expertise to address your company’s nature-related impacts, risks, and opportunities, you are ready to build-out your fundamentals. Setting a science-based target would often mean a higher level of commitment in line with planetary boundaries, and require more data, analysis and measurement. However, other types of targets and goals can still be set. There are also valuable synergies in addressing the various mandatory and voluntary frameworks from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (‘CSRD’) to the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (‘TNFD’), and SBTN, together. Integration is key to make the most out of your assessment.

What’s important to know is that available guidance allows businesses at every maturity level to begin, and to advance, their nature journey.

What did we learn?

Through our experience in helping companies prepare for SBTN and TNFD assessments, we have observed some common barriers and enablers.

· Data can be a real challenge: To assess nature impact and set targets, location data for own operation and upstream sites, as well as state of nature and pressure data for those locations, is needed. SBTN requires companies to use spatially explicit primary, observational data if this is available. For companies at a lower maturity level in ESG data, it can take long to identify, gather, consolidate and cleanse the required internal data.

· Upstream supply chain visibility becomes critical: Unlike your likely previous experiences with climate, nature impact assessments require gathering of ’location-specific’ data. While reducing one tonne of GHG emissions has the same impact anywhere in the world (generally speaking), reducing one cubic meter of water in a drought area has a very different impact from doing so in a well-plenished lake. In addition, nature impact is often greatest at the ‘cradle stage’ where the raw material is extracted. For these reasons, the SBTN draft guidance requires identifying the location of the cradle stage in the upstream assessment (otherwise known as tier-n suppliers). This is a key barrier for many companies. For example, only 58% of the companies subject to SEC's conflict mineral disclosure rule were able to determine the country of origin of those minerals. At Accenture, we have invested in addressing the challenges in supply chain visibility that most companies suffer from, and developed a widget to enable nature impact assessments using tier-n modelling of supply chains.

· Dependencies can be a powerful tool: CSRD is a great cliffhanger to raise awareness for the topic at C-level. For senior leadership that is razor focused on the bottom line, the assessment of a company's nature dependencies (for example, on freshwater availability, flood and storm protection, etc.) builds a powerful communications tool to point out the urgency to act on nature. This can also help to highlight the related potential financial impact, due to risks stemming from the company’s dependencies on nature.

· Stakeholders need an awareness journey: Stakeholders may understand biodiversity but grasping the broader concept of ‘nature’ can be challenging. Our team has found it helpful to first initiate internal awareness on nature-specific factors like local level location analysis, absence of a single metric equivalent to tonnes of greenhouse gas emitted, concentration of supply chain impacts at the nth tier, and understanding of current nature reporting and disclosure frameworks. This initial internal awareness building often makes the fulfilling of data requests and other nature-related engagements easier with those stakeholders, throughout the process.

· Current ambition levels may need raising: Many companies are starting with a nature impact assessment and strategy formulation, however, few are ending with ambition level that meet SBTN’s requirements. In addition to having a separate target for each nature pressure (water use, water quality, land use change etc.,) SBTN also requires targets for both own operation and upstream (often to the cradle stage.) In addition to the data challenges described above, companies are finding it difficult to incentivise and engage with upstream tier-n suppliers on any topic, let alone regarding nature impacts. As nature is a nascent topic, many companies are first focusing on their own operations’ hotspots of nature impacts, and deprioritizing supplier engagement for a later date.

Our advice for others

Before embarking on the complex journey of understanding your nature footprint, we can offer four pieces of advice to preparing for setting a science-based target for nature:

· Consider which frameworks to follow: Many companies are already following TNFD’s LEAP approach to assess their nature impacts and dependencies, and prepare for CSRD reporting. By considering the SBTN’s data requirements and the TNFD’s requirement on dual materiality together, businesses can achieve efficiencies via a joint impact assessment. Even if not conducting these assessments simultaneously, having a strong familiarity with SBTN’s requirements and common challenges can allow for a ‘light’ TNFD assessment to pave way for reducing the workload associated with the heavier data assessment and engagement requirement, as needed by SBTN’s current guidance.

· Start early and collaboratively on data: Tracing supply chains up to raw materials’ origins requires investment and strong supplier engagement. Transparency can take years to build up. Although regulations are increasingly making this a requirement (e.g. through the upcoming EU Deforestation-free products Regulation (‘EUDR’) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (‘CSDDD’)), this sets to remain a time-intensive process in the short to mid-term. Nevertheless, it can help to tap into the supplier and location data collected in those efforts to derive nature impact insights.

· Include dependencies in internal communication: TNFD requires companies to assess their ‘dual materiality’ of both impacts and dependencies on nature. While SBTN requires only assessing impact, it may be advantageous to assess and communicate dependencies internally. Our experience has shown that communicating how business financials and operational continuity may depend on nature can do a great deal to raise awareness with C-suite and other non-sustainability corporate stakeholders. This link to business bottom line often attracts their attention in a way that data on nature degradation cannot.

· Perfect is the enemy of the good: Get started now and proceed with the currently available data. Begin implementing actions now, and don’t wait for another 2-3 years for data collection to be completed. Many clients start with a lighter impact hotspot pilot, to raise awareness internally and gain leadership buy-in for a fuller nature impact assessment, and development of an associated nature strategy.

If you would like to discuss what nature impact assessment and setting a nature target means for your business, feel free to get in touch. Our over 1,000 people strong sustainability services practice has experiences ranging from CSRD readiness assessment and narrative preparation, through to TNFD assessments, SBTN programmes, and nature and supplier engagement strategy development. We have an end-to-end view that can help you with building internal support in your organization, and turning nature insights into action.

Interested to know more about the topic? Check out our other articles by Barnabas Harrison on what we learned in a detailed TNFD pilot, by Louise Quarrell on what to look out for in TNFD’s final framework released last September and by Wesley Spindler on Accenture’s Nature.VC tool.