Target setting process questions
Here we provide answers to common technical questions that companies have as they are going through the target-setting process.
Prioritize
In Step 2, you build on the data gathered in Step 1 to determine where it is most important to set targets. This prioritization is based on an integrated ranking of your potential target-setting locations that takes into account impacts, biodiversity, and dependencies.
From this ranking, you select a number of locations to take forward into Step 3: Set targets – based on strategic and social factors, as well as the potential for co-benefits across targets. For locations with insufficient traceability to set science-based targets, you have the option to set enabling targets focused on traceability improvement and supplier engagement.
Prioritization is about sequencing, not exclusion. Locations you select now remain material, and SBTN encourages companies to continue expanding target coverage over time.
"Through the assessment of where our impact is and where the risk areas are, the whole process helps confirm the focus for us as a business — where we have an impact and where we need to take responsibility. It has helped us build structure, focus our efforts, and reduce the risk of focusing in the wrong areas."
After completing Step 2 you will have:
- Ranked locations with sufficient traceability to set science-based targets according to an integrated ranking combining environmental impacts and dependencies.
- Selected the locations you’ll take forward to Step 3 based on additional strategic and social considerations.
- Optionally, set enabling targets to expand science-based target setting opportunities through improving traceability and supplier engagement.
Step 2 is divided into three sub-steps
Step 2a: Integrated priority ranking
Step 2a turns your Step 1 data into a standardized ranking of where to act first. You do this separately for each pressure category and value chain segment (direct operations and upstream), considering the following criteria to rank locations as being of higher importance for target setting:
- Locations where high company pressures coincide with a degraded state of nature
- Locations where biodiversity is more vulnerable or significant at the level of species or ecosystems.
- Locations where setting targets could safeguard business dependencies on nature.
This ranking informs your choices; it doesn’t dictate where you must set targets first.
2b: Selection of target-setting locations
Step 2b is where you interpret the ranking in your own context and decide where to set targets. Factors to consider include target-setting readiness, strategic significance, social context and implementation conditions, and opportunities for co-benefits where several pressures are high in the same location. From this, you produce your list of target-setting locations; SBTN recommends at least ten per pressure category. For upstream locations, you also consider how to share accountability with your suppliers.
Step 2c: Prioritization
Step 2c applies to upstream procurement that cannot be traced with sufficient granularity to implement the Step 3 methods. These sourcing locations are defined as “Target Boundary B” in the SBTN methods. In Step 2c, you rank these volumes by pressure, and you can set one or both of these enabling targets:
- Supplier Engagement targets, where suppliers set and validate science-based targets covering your sourcing
- Traceability Improvement targets, to bring volumes into the required traceability levels to implement science-based targets (i.e., “Target Boundary A” levels)
These targets are voluntary, with one exception: if you are setting land targets but cannot trace your sourcing well enough to set the Working Lands target, a Supplier Engagement target is required in its place.
Resources for Step 2: Prioritize