Target setting process questions
Here we provide answers to common technical questions that companies have as they are going through the target-setting process.
Track
Step 5. Track will focus on Measuring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) activities.
These activities occur all through the five steps of the SBTN process:
- First, while measuring impacts on nature (Step 1)
- Next, while deciding which locations to prioritize (Step 2)
- Then, while collecting baseline data and disclosing this when targets are set (Step 3)
- Throughout the process of acting on your SBTs for nature (Step 4), companies will track and report on their progress (Step 5)
Guidance for indicator selection baseline measurement is already part of the existing guidance for Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 Freshwater, and Step 3 Land. However, detailed MRV guidance for companies in the process of acting on science-based targets for nature is under development.
SBTN is currently developing claims guidance linked to the validation of its corporate targets. However public disclosure is critical for company accountability and the integrity of the targets, and we encourage it throughout all steps of the process including results of your organization’s materiality and value chain assessment and baseline data for targets.
Companies who participated in the SBTN 2023-2024 pilot are proposing solutions to MRV, specifically KPIs, data collection, data analysis, and potential disclosure of progress, as part of their Corporate Action Plans.
As the technical guidance expands to include additional pressures and states of nature, and additional realms such as Ocean, the suite of indicators and methodologies will expand.
SBTN is working with partners to scope an MRV system to serve these needs, building on the existing reporting and disclosure infrastructure. Once this is standardized, SBTN will publish specific technical guidance for Step 5: Track.
Glossary
Monitoring: Tracking progress toward targets.
Measurement: The process of collecting data for baseline setting, monitoring and reporting.
Reporting: Preparing of formal documentation typically connected to desired objectives, outcomes or outputs, such as those connected to targets and goals.
Validation: An independent process involving expert review to ensure target meets required criteria and methods of science-based targets.
Verification: An independent third-party confirmation of either or both: a) baseline values of a target indicator (e.g. a company’s water or GHG inventory) and b) progress made toward achieving the target.
It is critical for your company to track and report on its progress to ensure its accountability and the integrity of the validated targets. As an interim solution, companies within the initial target validation group who are setting targets in 2023 will use an action plan to both outline the actions they will take to implement their targets as well as their plan for monitoring progress. This action plan can then be refined and used by companies once the validation pilot concludes in 2024, prior to full MRV guidance to target implementation.
Depending on the type of targets that have been defined and the scale (e.g., site versus value chain) at which they apply, appropriate monitoring and measurement approaches will vary. Further, the different types of actions associated with Step 4—avoid, reduce, regenerate, restore, and transform—will likely require different types of targets and indicators; targets focused on reducing impacts, such as pollution reductions, require different indicators than targets for restoring and regenerating nature.
We envision that the mix of indicators for some companies and environmental pressures will include a mix of state monitoring at site level, pressure reduction targets at site or company level, and additional response targets,
Once SBTN has an established MRV system in place, we will begin to formalize requirements about corporate reporting (e.g. to SBTN or other parties), as well as share results of progress gleaned through monitoring (e.g. through satellite or other technologies) and through verification (e.g. through third-party actors engaged by companies to assess their progress).