Step 2c is divided into four tasks

• Task 6 - Understand social and justice priorities through stakeholder engagement

  Task 6 allows you to identify what social and justice issues or societal goals are relevant in your higher-ranked locations (from the combined ranking produced in Task 5) and to consider prioritizing those locations for your initial or next round of target setting.

  To complete Task 6, you must first undertake a stakeholder mapping process, identifying local stakeholder needs (including their reliance on NCP), existing stakeholder relationships, and opportunities for collaboration with stakeholders as part of the target-setting (Step 3) or achievement (Step 4) process. You should emphasize Indigenous peoples, local communities, and other affected communities in your mapping efforts. SBTN’s Stakeholder Engagement Guidance, introduced in the Upcoming technical guidance section of this manual will be a useful resource to prepare for and complete this task.

  Output(s) of this task:

  • Documentation of needs, relationships, and opportunities in assessed locations.
• Task 7 - Assess business dependencies on nature

  Task 7 allows you to identify how your company’s continued operations rely on NCP (i.e., ecosystem services) in your higher-ranked locations (from the combined ranking produced in Task 5) and to consider prioritizing those locations for your initial or next round of target setting.

  You can use datasets such as ENCORE to quickly screen your activities for their general (i.e., sector-average) dependencies on nature. The methodology offered by the Nature Risk Profile can help you calculate your dependencies in specific locations. You can find additional recommended tools in the SBTN methods and toolbox to complete this assessment.

  Outputs of this task:

  • Assessment (quantitative or qualitative) of dependencies on nature in chosen locations.
• Task 8 - Consider strategic priorities, risks, and capacity for action

  Task 8 allows you to account for strategic and feasibility factors in your higher-ranked locations (from the combined ranking produced in Task 5) and to consider where those factors warrant adjusting your priority locations for your initial or next round of target setting.

  In terms of feasibility, you should consider where you have the data quality necessary to proceed to Step 3 or if you will be able to acquire it. For example, having measurements of your pressures, rather than estimations, and knowing your locations at the right level of spatial granularity will greatly increase your ability to set targets and increase your flexibility to take actions to achieve them. A quick assessment of your options to increase your traceability where data is lacking can be considered as part of this task, for example through your existing certification efforts and established supply chain relationships.

  In terms of strategic importance, you can consider regulatory or reputational risks that you may face from (not) acting in certain locations—for example, in jurisdictions where regulation may be changing soon or that are more heavily scrutinized by the public. You can also consider the strategic significance of certain locations, for example through their financial materiality for your operations, their historical significance for your organization, or the prospects for growth and new business opportunities.

  Outputs of this task:

  • Documentation of feasibility and strategic factors in assessed locations.
• Task 9 - Prioritize within target boundaries

  Having completed at least one of the three preceding tasks, proceed to Task 9 to select a shortlist of priority locations to set targets on in your first or next round of target setting. All activities within your target boundaries must eventually be covered by targets, but you may wish to prioritize certain locations.

  You must take your combined rank from Task 5 as the basis for this selection and review the information gathered for each location in Tasks 6, 7, and 8 next to that rank. You may apply one of two approaches to make your final priority list: a target boundary-specific cutoff or a cross-boundary cutoff accounting for co-benefits.

  Prioritization within individual target boundaries

  ⇒ For the water quantity and quality target boundaries:

  Define the top 10 (or top 10% if you have more than 100) of the locations in the ranking as top priority in each target boundary. Remember that this is done separately for direct operations and upstream sections.

  In the methods for Step 3 Freshwater, top-priority locations are those where you will spend additional efforts seeking to use local hydrological models when setting Freshwater Quantity and Freshwater Quality targets.

  ⇒ For the land use and change and soil pollution target boundaries:

  Designate the top two locations of each of these target boundaries as the top-priority locations. Note what percentage of the spatial area of each of these target boundaries is covered by this location. Your Landscape Engagement targets in Step 3 will cover one or two of these locations (depending on their size).

  Prioritization across target boundaries (for co-benefits)

  Certain activities and locations may be highly ranked across multiple target boundaries, without necessarily being in the top-priority selection. You may identify these locations and consider them as high priority (next to the ones previously selected), in order to take advantage of co-benefits from action on multiple-issue areas.

  Take note: The prioritization approach of Task 7 does not apply to the Step 3 Land methods for the No Conversion of Natural Ecosystems and the Land Footprint Reduction targets. These two targets have a broader scope, with specific requirements explained in the Step 3 Land section of the manual.

  Output(s) for this task:

  • Shortlists of the top-priority locations for each target boundary and (for the land use and soil change pollution lists) the associated land surface of the locations.