Reforest’Action / The Science-Based Target for nature (SBTn) Initiative: For trajectories to reduce corporate impacts
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The Science-Based Target for nature (SBTn) Initiative: For trajectories to reduce corporate impacts

Décryptages

**Following on from work carried out by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) on climate, the Science-Based Target for Nature (SBTn) aims to encourage companies and cities to set scientific targets to preserve local ecosystems and ensure sustainable resource management. This initiative published the first version of its scientific objectives for nature in May 2023 . **

Companies can establish trajectories for reducing their impacts while respecting - at this stage - the ecological limits for freshwater and the degradation of terrestrial ecosystems. This set of guidelines will be supplemented by ocean health, biodiversity, and climate guidelines, to be published by 2025. Faced with an unprecedented decline in the living world, companies must start acting on a large scale to reverse the current trend. SBTn provides technical advice and the right tools. By defining SBT targets now, companies will have the means to act quickly and at the right level.

Global scientific objectives for nature

In order to set their scientific objectives for nature, companies must follow the five-step framework described in the SBTn guide published in 2020 - a reference system of actions in favor of nature for companies. Only technical advice relating to the first three stages presented in May 2023 has been distributed :

SBTn Process

1° The first three stages were presented in May 2023:

  1. Assess:

Companies must estimate their value chain impacts and dependencies on nature and then list potential issues. Here is an example concerning biodiversity:

  • Establishing a database on activities and environmental impact: collect data on the company's activities and their impact on biodiversity; possibly include an examination of the potential consequences of activities on ecosystems.
  • Definition of high-impact activities: Identify activities that have the most significant impact on biodiversity.
  • Impact assessment: assess the impact of their high-impact activities on biodiversity based on SBTn using environmental assessment methodologies such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
  • Determining priorities for action: determining priorities for action to protect biodiversity based on the impact of their activities and the availability of solutions to reduce this impact.
  1. Interpret and prioritize:

Companies need to set targets and priorities. They should consider, for example, the most valuable ecosystems - areas where people depend most on nature for their lives and livelihoods and areas where supply chain activities have the most significant impact.

  1. Measure, fix and disclose:

It deals with scientific objectives for the environmental impacts identified in stages 1 and 2.

2° The last two stages are defined in the 2020 guide:

  1. Taking action:

In pursuing their objectives, companies are guided by a hierarchy of objectives (the "mitigation hierarchy"). SBTn advocates first avoiding and then reducing impacts where avoidance is not possible. Secondly, they must restore ecosystems and regenerate stocks of natural capital. In this sense, acting means:

  • Avoid: preventing the impact from occurring or eliminating it by choosing another location, process, or time scale - for example, by avoiding 100% deforestation or conversion of intact ecosystems or by avoiding sourcing from fisheries whose stocks exceed sustainable levels.
  • Reduce: minimize negative impacts as much as possible, recognizing that total elimination may not be possible within the current business model or due to production practices (minimize if you cannot reduce). For example, the company can reduce emissions, pollution, and water use.
  • Restore and regenerate: when impacts cannot be avoided or reduced completely. Restoration means initiating or accelerating the recovery of an ecosystem in terms of its health, integrity, and sustainability. This may involve restoring natural habitat on less productive land or revegetating areas. Regeneration differs from the purely reparative approach of ecological restoration. It involves implementing actions to ensure the stability and resilience of ecosystems over time. It aims to recreate the conditions for expressing the self-renewal capacities of living organisms by reactivating ecological processes damaged or overexploited by human activity. It focuses on the specific contributions of nature to humankind, for example, carbon sequestration, food production, and increased nitrogen and phosphorus retention in regenerative agriculture.
  • Transform: by implementing actions that contribute to system-wide change, such as technological, economic, institutional, and social factors and changes in underlying values and behaviors.
  1. Communicate: Detailed guidelines are being developed for measurement, reporting, and verification.

Reducing impacts on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems

In developing its methodology, SBTn has drawn on the work of the 2019 IPBES on pressure factors on biodiversity and Rockström's (2009) notion of planetary limits . A first version presented in May 2023 will identify targets to reduce impacts on:

  1. Freshwater

Indicators will enable companies to deal with problems related to its use and pollution . The methodology encourages companies to take an interest in freshwater quantity and quality, particularly surface water flows, groundwater levels, and pollution by nitrogen and phosphorus.

  1. Restoring terrestrial ecosystems

Land-related objectives concern all companies that have a material impact on nature. Their activities or upstream supply chain may impact land use or management . Three main objectives lie in the following:

  1. not to convert natural ecosystems, whether developed or cleared - the main factor in the loss of terrestrial biodiversity.
  2. reduce the land footprint to preserve the resilience of natural ecosystems on which human systems depend.
  3. landscape engagement. This objective aims to stimulate corporate action and efforts through multi-stakeholder collaborative processes at the landscape level to regenerate cultivated land, restore degraded or converted ecosystems, and transform how companies act in and are inspired by landscapes.

**Conclusion **The SBTn represents an ambitious, science-based benchmark that encourages companies to develop trajectories for reducing their impact on nature. At Reforest'Action, acting at all levels and without delay is urgent to protect living things. There is a close link between the economy, the survival of populations, and the protection of ecosystems. More than half of the world's gross domestic product ($44,000 billion) is moderately or heavily dependent on nature and its services, such as the provision of food, fiber, and fuel. Convinced that companies can be sources of regeneration for the living world, Reforest'Action wants to contribute to their transformation through nature-based solutions, enabling them to act within or beyond their value chain. Reforest'Action is mobilizing its strengths around the deployment of regenerative agriculture, developing carbon projects, and measuring impacts. Since 2010, we have already carried out more than 1,500 projects in 46 countries, thanks mainly to funding from over 3,000 companies.

References:

Public consultation on corporate technical guidance.

Piloting freshwater SBTs for nature – corporate case-studies.

SBTN frequently asked questions.

SBTN’s Initial Guidance (2020) – executive summary.

SBTn, Webinar, Introducing the first science-based targets for nature.

Le Rapport Planète Vivante 2022, contenant l'Indice Planète Vivante 2022.

IPBES, Seconde évaluation mondiale de l'état de la biodiversité, 2022.

World Economic Forum, Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy, 2020.