Measurement approaches for corporate impacts on ecosystem condition : current landscape and future priorities

Abstract

1. Ecosystem condition is an important concept for understanding the impacts and dependencies of business on biodiversity and consideration of it is recommended by assessment and disclosure frameworks, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). 2. Approaches for measuring corporate impacts on ecosystem condition vary in their underlying methods and metrics. This creates uncertainty in their use by business. Here, we discuss the appropriateness of different approaches in different decision-making contexts, including the selection of appropriate reference conditions and granularity of metrics. 3. The assessment of company impacts on ecosystem condition should be seen as an iterative process with flexibility to continually improve approaches over time as new methods and data emerge to fill key knowledge gaps.