NatureTech Alliance launched to improve biodiversity management and reporting

Sustainability consultancy ERM, software firm Salesforce and data providers NatureMetrics and Planet have launched the NatureTech Alliance to support businesses in assessing and reporting their biodiversity and nature impacts.

The alliance aims to help companies understand their impact on nature and prepare reports aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND) and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). 

It will support firms with an “integrated toolkit for biodiversity management and disclosure”, which will include a value chain biodiversity impact and dependency assessment, supplier engagement on biodiversity, programme management as well as regulatory reporting and compliance.

ERM will provide the sustainability consulting and global delivery capabilities, Salesforce will offer its technology and ecosystem reach, while Planet will provide access to daily satellite data and analytics and NatureMetrics will use its eDNA technology, which turns site-level species data into insights to manage and monitor nature, to support on-the-ground biodiversity measurement.

“We are at a critical moment in history where we both need to start quantifying, monitoring, and valuing our biodiversity and actually have the technology and tools to do so - from satellite technology, artificial intelligence, and huge data infrastructures. What’s next is this. True collaboration where all of the tools and places of knowledge collaborate to make the change happen,” said Andrew Zolli, Chief Impact Officer of Planet.

The initiative was formed at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos to “accelerate and scale the assessment, management and disclosure of biodiversity impacts and dependencies on nature”.

Nature impact assessment still too complex

Measuring nature impacts remains a complicated and largely experimental exercise, as evidenced by attempts to develop a biodiversity credit methodology: while carbon credits focus purely on emissions, biodiversity credits must monitor a wide range of metrics that vary depending on location and type of ecosystem.

Still, efforts to include biodiversity and nature in corporate climate assessments are ramping up: More than 300 companies in 46 countries have signed up to publish nature-related financial disclosures using the TNFD framework, and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is now researching the potential for new disclosures around biodiversity and nature.

Matt Haddon, Global Lead for Nature & Water at ERM, said: “This comes at a critical time as large corporates are grappling with the next two waves of the triple threat of climate change, nature loss and water scarcity as a matter of urgency. By combining our capabilities, we can help more organisations to develop a comprehensive understanding of their nature-based risks and dependencies, which will enable them to effectively integrate nature into their business strategies and operations at the pace and scale required.”