The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) today published the first formal framework meant to help companies set goals for preserving nature and biodiversity.

The new guidelines build on the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), started in 2015, to help companies set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with keeping global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. More than 2,000 companies have already set verified targets related to emissions reductions through SBTi.

SBTN’s guidance for nature is a recognition that planetary health is not just about managing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but also protecting biodiversity and ecosystems. Science-based targets are commitments verified to be in line with the latest climate science. The new recommendations focused on nature are meant to provide a pathway for companies to limit environmental impacts.

For freshwater, the goals consist of recommendations for reductions in water quantity usage and an increase in water quality (practices that decrease nutrient pollution). For land, the goals include no conversion of natural landscapes to agricultural, developed or cleared lands, reducing the agriculture footprint and encouraging more restoration. 

"The nature science-based targets are complementing climate science-based targets in a really key way by incentivizing corporate action beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions and actually addressing overall needs of the environment and to address nature loss," said Varsha Vijay, technical director at SBTN.

SBTN is opening the guidance first to just 17 pilot companies, with broader release to the public in 2024. The pilot companies — including AB InBev, LVMH, Nestlé, Neste, Suntory Holdings, Tesco and H&M Group — are preparing to submit targets for validation by SBTN and help test its validation criteria.

"We're providing [this guidance] so that companies can move from having multiple and conflicting sources of definition on what [doing] enough for nature looks like, to having consistent, replicable guidance that can be compared across companies," said Erin Billman, executive director at SBTN. 

This first release covers only land and freshwater pledges for a limited number of sectors, with recommendations for preserving biodiversity embedded into both sets of guidance. The full set — with added guidance for healthy oceans — will be out by 2025. 

Climate change and nature are closely linked, and there is no way the planet can keep to 1.5 C degrees of warming without preventing and reversing nature loss, according to the United Nations. And the world is barreling down a path of biodiversity destruction — global animal populations have shrunk by 69 percent in the last 50 years, half the wetlands in Europe have been lost in the past 300 years and over 1 million species are threatened with extinction.

The nature science-based targets are complementing climate science-based targets beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing needs of the environm