Looking to set Science-Based Targets for Nature? LandGriffon will set you up for success.

In a world where sustainability requirements are constantly evolving, the way companies measure their impact on nature must do the same, or risk being left behind.

The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) LEAP standards require companies to go beyond calculating and reporting on the emissions caused by their business activities (direct and in the supply chain), and to report on their overall impact on nature. COP28 Dubai’s focus on climate and nature is indicative of this wider trend.

In setting Science-Based targets for nature, companies can underline their credibility, improve their attractiveness to sustainability-conscious consumers and investors, and demonstrate their commitment to a nature-positive economy. The SBTN will also improve overall data on the sustainable transition, accruing a critical mass of knowledge and best practices.

Good reporting requires good data, and not all data is up to the task. It’s costly and time-consuming for companies to gather accurate data on nature impacts, even more so when they find themselves buried under bad data. But the planet won’t wait. That’s why LandGriffon have aligned their methodologies with the SBTN. Companies can start calculating and reporting on the nature impacts of their activities now, even if they’re only at the beginning of their sustainability journey.

Start your nature positive journey with the industry standard: SBTN alignment.

Showing up is the hardest part, and with so many concepts to keep track of, companies looking for a starting point might find themselves overwhelmed. The SBTN builds upon the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi). The Network is a collaboration of 80 environmental organizations that have released their first science-based targets for nature. The idea is to go beyond net-zero emissions to build a framework that incentivizes positive impacts on nature, biodiversity, and more. Over 200 organizations have contributed to the targets.

The SBTN is one of the world’s most prominent nature accounting standards and is used to guide the creation of regulations, making it the perfect starting point for companies looking to get ahead of the nature accounting curve. Any company can use the following five steps to implement Science-Based Targets in their nature accounting:

1. Assess your impact on nature

Nature is diverse, so nature accounting must too. All companies must begin by appraising their impact on nature before they can begin setting targets and claiming the benefits. LandGriffon’s data-backed methodology allows companies to start assessing the nature impacts of their raw materials against the following SBTN-aligned indicators:

Water quantity

• Water use
• Unsustainable water use

Water quality

• Nutrient load
• Excess nutrient load

Land Use

• Land footprint

Climate

• Greenhouse gas emissions (farm management)
• Greenhouse gas emissions (deforestation statistical land use change)

Natural ecosystem conversion

• Deforestation footprint (statistical land use change)
• Net cropland expansion

Biodiversity

• Forest landscape integrity loss

The data obtained from these assessments forms the bedrock of a thorough nature accounting risk assessment, and can be used to chart the most efficient path to a company’s sustainable future.

2. Prioritize high risk areas

Companies need to carry out an environmental materiality screening assessment based on the SBTN’s indicators to understand where their positive and negative nature impacts lie in the value chain. This allows them to prioritize resource allocation to make the most impact.

SBTN recommends a three step approach, each requiring more granular data:

1. Sector-level materiality evaluation.
2. Value chain hotspot assessment.
3. Company-level refinement.

SBTN has a tool to help with step 1 but for the hotspot assessment, companies will need to know where the risk lies in their supply chain, and that data isn’t always forthcoming from suppliers.

LandGriffon allows businesses to feed in supply chain traceability data to improve its calculations. To unburden users, LandGriffon does the calculations itself using pre-processed geo-spatial data that’s cross-referenced from a variety of sources. Companies enter whatever supply chain traceability data they have, and start generating insights, presented in an accessible, report-ready format.

When exact locations of suppliers aren’t available, LandGriffon models the most likely locations and risks accordingly. By combining statistical and direct calculations of nature impacts, companies can get data on those impacts while they’re still building traceability in the supply chain.

3. Set impactful Science-Based Targets for Nature

The data gathered in steps 1 & 2 will allow companies to establish Science-Based Targets for nature across freshwater, land, climate and biodiversity. Companies should set specific targets for specific strategies; for example, targets for regeneration may be different to targets for more sustainable procurement. Companies must then disclose those targets publicly, and track and report on their progress over time.

LandGriffon’s SBTN-aligned nature accounting maps provide a holistic picture of agricultural supply chain impacts so companies can answer questions like:

• What materials, business units, regions or suppliers are the largest sources of nature impacts and risks?
• Where are the greatest opportunities to reduce impacts and risks?
• Where are we making progress against our targets and is this progress likely to be sufficient to achieve them?

Answering these questions empowers companies with the information to set ambitious, impactful, and viable targets.

4. Make informed interventions

The SBTN have released an Action Framework (AR3T) to guide companies looking to implement policies, projects and practices that positively impact nature.

Companies must:

• Avoid and reduce contributions to nature loss.
• Regenerate and restore to allow natural recovery. (e.g., the extent and integrity of ecosystems and species extinction risk).
• Transform underlying systems, at multiple levels, to address the drivers of nature loss.

The LandGriffon forecasting feature supports companies in using the SBTN Action Framework. Users can set future scenarios and interventions to make data-informed decisions on what actions will be most effective at reducing impact across different indicators.

5. Track the progress of interventions

The SBTN calls for public disclosures that include the results of any nature impact materiality assessments, value chain assessments, and other baseline data that is used to set Science-Based Targets for nature. Once those targets are set, it’s crucial that companies report on progress towards these targets. In the coming months, the SBTN will establish a formalized Measure, Report and Verify (MRV) system with specific requirements for corporate reporting against the SBTN.

LandGriffon streamlines the process of preparing and informing nature accounting reports. We will continue to align with SBTN developments and reporting formats they create.

Transparent, trustworthy data is the key to a successful SBTN implementation.

In order to set realistic targets and demonstrate their progress with confidence, companies need to know that their analyses are based on accurate data. LandGriffon’s methodology and datasets are open source, so they’re fully transparent, trusted, and constantly under review. The commercial service presents this data a report-ready platform that makes the complex process of analyzing and reporting on nature accounting accessible and actionable.

“SBTN guidance recognizes that there’s a huge amount of satellite-based data available to track our impacts and dependence on nature. The purpose of LandGriffon is to make it as easy as possible for companies to make use of spatial data, even when full traceability of supply chains isn’t realistic, and to have confidence in the results they are getting.”

— Francis Gassert, Strategy and Impact, Vizzuality

Getting accurate data on supply chain nature impacts with inconsistent traceability information is a common obstacle for companies. Keeping the data consistent across suppliers is another piece of the puzzle. Suppliers might be remote, companies might have a better relationship with some suppliers than others, and some suppliers may not want to provide the locations of their farms and concessions. There are a whole host of obstacles that could prevent companies from achieving full traceability on their supply chains.

Supply chain data from LandGriffon is unique in that it allows companies to generate accurate sLUC nature accounting calculations to a 50km radius, rather than at the country level. This allows companies that may not have a fully fleshed-out map of their supply chain to be more precise in setting and taking action on their science-based targets for nature.

With Landgriffon’s methodologies in their back pocket, companies can spend less time on mandatory compliance and reporting and more time on changing the way they do business.

Get in touch and start generating SBTN-aligned nature accounting insights for your business now.

Join our webinar to learn how to put this into practice, Tues 21st Nov at 3 pm CEST/9 am EDT.