The Science Based Target Network has updated its guidance for corporate nature targets. It laid out five steps corporates should take to align their approach to nature with science – assess, prioritise, set targets, act and track – providing guidance for each of them. The first step involves gaining an understanding of a company’s impact on nature, including through transformation of land, extraction of resources, and release of harmful emissions. The second step consists in deciding where a company’s activities have the most adverse impact on nature, and where those impacts can most effectively be mitigated. In the third step, targets are set and validated by the SBTN. The final two steps involve implementing and reporting on the targets. The latest guidance provided methodology for land and freshwater targets, both of which integrate biodiversity. Ocean targets will be made available in 2025, the SBTN said, while climate targets have been dealt with separately in the affiliated Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). “By setting science-based targets for nature with [the] SBTN, companies can meet the requirements of disclosure frameworks such as CDP, GRI, TCFD and TNFD (in development), and demonstrate to the investor community that their company is working towards addressing and managing their impacts and dependencies on nature,” the group said.
