What does nature have to do with business? Well, everything! If nature were a country, it would be the world’s largest economy at US$125 trillion annually. As a business in healthcare, food and agriculture, we know that nature is essential for resilient businesses and human well-being.
Over the past few months, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Asia Pacific held a series of workshops with Asian businesses to gather feedback on the upcoming Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). This framework aims to help businesses assess and disclose nature-related risks and opportunities.
Here’s a snapshot of our take on TNFD, and what you have to know.
- The spotlight is on businesses in Southeast Asia. Our region is home to some of the world’s most unique yet endangered biodiversity and natural ecosystems, as well as dynamic, high-growth industries. Elevating nature on corporate agendas will become a challenge and opportunity.
- Taking the first steps toward more corporate accountability on nature. Over half of Asia Pacific’s companies disclose climate-specific metrics today, yet few have embarked on the process of preparing for nature-related disclosures. Questions that many are asking include: What can businesses do to better manage natural ecosystems? How can businesses capture the value of biodiversity?
- Look beyond the alphabet soup. The emergence of new global reporting standards has led to growing calls by businesses for the consolidation of these guidelines. Yet, the bigger picture here is the growing recognition amongst stakeholders and shareholders of the link between business resilience and the natural environment. The TNFD framework could help businesses make decisions that weigh the benefits on nature alongside economic value.
Want to know more about TNFD? Here’s a primer from WBCSD’s workshops that we attended:
- According to WBCSD, only 42% of companies currently recognise nature as a tangible issue. This is set to change with the TNFD framework set to be announced globally in September 2023.
- The latest v0.4 beta release of the framework highlights the importance of standardisation of metrics across sectors to ensure tangible impact on nature and climate. New developments include having a tiered set of metrics for reporting, additional guidance based on sectors and biomes, and including bidirectional metrics to encourage a more holistic approach to reporting.
- Companies in the process of adopting the latest TNFD framework have also reported some challenges such as collecting and compiling large amounts of data, acquiring location-based data, and reporting across entire supply chains. We look forward to the final consultation workshop to discuss these considerations ahead of the final release of the framework.
Spurwing Communications delivers strategic communications programmes for clients in the healthcare, nutrition and food sectors.
