Public Consultation: Updated Guidance on Assessing and Prioritizing Nature Impacts

The Science Based Targets Network has launched a public consultation to inform updates to its technical guidance for companies on assessing and prioritizing nature impacts. The public consultation runs from March 24 to April 24, 2026.

The consultation focuses on the major updates under consideration for Version 2 (V2) of the Step 1: Assess and Step 2: Prioritize methods, planned for mid-2026.

These methods aim to support companies in taking action across their value chains with varying levels of traceability, strengthening how impacts are identified and prioritized, and progressing toward location-based target-setting with great transparency – while maintaining scientific integrity.

The updates proposed build on real-world corporate implementation experience and reflect input from the SBTN technical community.

How to participate in the consultation

To participate in the public consultation, review the key topics under consideration and submit your feedback through the consultation form by April 17, 2026.

SBTN invites broad and inclusive stakeholder feedback. While the guidance is designed for corporate use, input from technical experts, accountability partners, community stakeholders, and other affected groups is critical to ensure the targets are both effective and locally appropriate.

Watch the Public Consultation Webinar Recording

On April 7, SBTN held a webinar to outline the updates proposed for V2, share more information about the public consultation, and answer questions.

Watch the recording

Why Steps 1 & 2 matter

Science-based targets for nature help companies address the environmental pressures driving biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation – risks that increasingly affect supply chains, water security, and long-term business resilience.

Within SBTN’s step-by-step rigorous framework, Step 1: Assess enables companies to evaluate their impacts on nature across their value chains. Step 2: Prioritize identifies where action and target-setting will have the greatest benefit for nature. Together, these steps help companies make informed decisions about where to act, focus resources where they matter most, and build a credible foundation for science-based targets for nature.

What changes are proposed for V2?

Version 2 will aim to help companies move more efficiently from impact assessment and prioritization to target-setting and action – while maintaining the scientific integrity of the approach.

The public consultation focuses on key proposed changes that may significantly influence the scientific rigor, feasibility, accountability, and interoperability of the methods, both across the SBTN methodology and with other sustainability frameworks.

Key areas of refinement under consideration in Version 2 are:

SBTN is exploring updates to support companies at different stages of traceability maturity and create clearer pathways toward upstream target-setting and action. Proposed changes include supplier engagement targets to advance traceability or enable supplier target-setting, response option pathways for cases where near-term traceability remains difficult and the option to address impacts across multiple value chain stages, rather than focusing only on the most impactful stage.
SBTN is exploring changes to improve the practicality and interoperability of its materiality assessment. Proposed updates include improvements to the Materiality Screening Tool and High Impact Commodity List, options to leverage existing assessments and disclosures, and more structured integration of dependencies to strengthen alignment with double materiality approaches and other sustainability frameworks.
SBTN is exploring refinements to streamline certain requirements while maintaining scientific rigor, particularly where they added limited decision-making value or slowed action. Proposed changes include a more flexible, progress-oriented approach to a company’s upstream assessment, supported by clearer classification of commodity volumes by traceability level and enhanced disclosures. Together, these changes enable companies to move toward target-setting based on available data, while increasing transparency on traceability and progress over time. Additional updates include revisions to the prioritization approach (Step 2b) to better identify where targets are likely to have the greatest impact and streamlined guidance on strategic and social prioritization factors (Step 2c).

Companies can continue using V1.2 methods now

Companies already applying the current version of Steps 1 and 2 can continue using it. The V1.2 methods will remain available for six months after the release of Version 2 (planned for mid-2026), allowing companies to complete their process and submit for validation during the transition period.

Companies’ target-setting work that is already validated by the Accountability Accelerator remains valid for five years, and companies will not be required to redo previously validated steps.

Public consultation resources