Develop a nature strategy with clear definition and ambition.

Establish a strong case for why action on nature can create business value (e.g., avoiding crop loss from reduced pollination services). Align your organization’s nature ambitions and climate strategies to increase importance, develop a clear value narrative, and address interrelated risks. Use the Nature Strategy Handbook, published by the Business for Nature coalition, to develop your nature strategy.

Gain support from your leadership.

It is critical to get leadership buy-in and support to ensure success. Communicate that integrating your target-setting strategy with your business strategy can create additional value through improved capital flow, resource efficiency, enhanced value proposition, reputational capital, and more. Make sure that they are willing to engage adaptively in the act of target setting as the science, tools, and best practices evolve.

Coordinate with internal stakeholders.

Ensure buy-in, clear communication, and agreement on the processes needed for target setting among internal stakeholders. These can include teams involved in procurement, finance, operations, business development, research and development, and compliance, in addition to sustainability. Effective coordination with, for example, procurement departments on upstream data is essential. This is particularly true for large companies sitting downstream of the value chain, where the exercise of preparing and collecting data can represent a significant undertaking. And remember, because nature target setting is localized and requires related stakeholder engagement, you will need to build relationships with your local offices.

Understand the data and tools available for use.

You will need in-house internal expertise in sustainability, as well as data and project management capabilities. Ideally, your organization will have upstream visibility and strong relationships with suppliers, at all material locations. It could be helpful to start by looking at SBTN’s High Impact Commodity List (HICL). Your organization might already have some form of existing nature “baseline” of direct operations you can build on, e.g., from previous materiality screenings, setting climate targets through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), risk assessment through the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) or disclosures through CDP.

Identify a dedicated technical team.

Companies piloting the targets advised that specialized skill sets such as expertise in life cycle assessment and footprinting, proficiency in spatial analysis, and deep understanding of environmental data are crucial. Most pilot companies have relied on external consultants to support them through the process (see SBTN’s list of expert advisors).

Set a dedicated budget.

Your team will rely on this budget to advance toward near-term priorities, including data collection, advances in transparency, priority analysis, recruitment of experts, stakeholder engagement, implementation of solutions to meet targets, and monitoring techniques to track progress. Note that SBTN-required tools are freely accessible, though some additional recommended tools might come at a fee.

Set a realistic timeline for next steps.

At this stage, SBTN is unable to provide precise estimates of how long each step will take, given the many variables by sector, business model, and value chain complexity, as well as the extreme variety of internal processes among companies and the resources available to each. Over time, we aim to provide more representative data to guide your planning with more precision. Generally, companies starting to set science-based targets from scratch may take up to a year to gather data for their upstream supply chains where they may be sourcing raw materials.

Dedicate time to engage with local stakeholders.

When developing, implementing, and tracking progress toward targets, engage with local stakeholders as often as necessary to ensure targets are equitable. See the section on the Stakeholder Engagement Guidance for more information.