The year-long programme demonstrated firms taking a “gold standard approach” to assessing their biggest impacts on nature accurately and setting science-based targets – beginning with freshwater and land.
This is closing a “critical gap” in corporate sustainability, with the majority of participating companies – which included H&M and Carrefour – receiving validation for some or all of their targets.
Target setting helped drive more strategic discussions around business functions at a leadership level – moving beyond zero deforestation to zero conversion of natural ecosystems – and provided a common language to advance engagement with stakeholders.
Piloting companies have until 10 January 2025 to adopt their targets, which will be made public via a target tracker on a rolling basis.
“We are deeply grateful to our pioneering companies, supporting consultancies and NGO partners for their participation in the validation pilot for the first corporate science-based targets for nature,” said SBTN target validation pilot director, Paola Delgado.
“The pilot successfully provided companies with a valuable test-and-learn opportunity to engage in the target-setting process in an integrated way for the first time. While some used the pilot as a chance to gain insights for future commitments, others are now preparing to publicly disclose and adopt their targets.”
However, the pilot scheme uncovered broader “systemic challenges” with devising science-based targets for nature, such as difficulty in tracing raw materials through complex supply chains and local freshwater model availability.
The SBTN said that overcoming these challenges demands collective action across civil society and the broader international community to help close critical gaps and help solve system-wide challenges.
It is now calling on more companies to begin their journey toward science-based targets by using its methods to understand their impacts on nature.
Delgado continued: “SBTN is closing a critical gap in corporate sustainability by equipping companies with a clear and credible pathway to take ambitious action for nature.
“As we turn towards the development of the next generation of targets, we will continue to develop a validation process that supports SBTN’s mission: empowering companies to operate within environmental boundaries, meeting society’s needs while making quantifiable and science-based contributions toward a nature-positive future.”
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Chris Seekings is the Deputy Editor of IEMA’s Transform magazine, which is published biomonthly for IEMA members. Chris’s role involves writing sustainability-related news, features and interviews, as well as helping to plan and manage the magazine’s other day-to-day activities.