What are science-based targets, and how do they help businesses?

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Long-term societal and business resilience depends on the extent to which we can stay within the environmental ‘safe operating space’ for humanity. Science-Based Targets (SBTs) are a framework for business and finance to set targets to reduce key pressures on nature in line with this.

SBTs draw on both societal goals for nature, such as the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and on scientific understanding about environmental limits, termed ‘planetary boundaries’ or ‘earth system boundaries’, for pressures such as climate change, nutrient cycling, freshwater use, and biodiversity loss, beyond which there are unacceptable societal risks.

Businesses can play a key role in helping humanity stay within planetary boundaries by proportionally reducing pressures on nature, such as Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, land-use change, and freshwater use in line with societal goals. Doing so can help businesses avoid nature-related risks.

Science-based target setting

The well-known Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi) helps companies set targets for GHG emissions to stay within the Paris Agreement goal of keeping temperature rise well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. On the other hand, the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) helps companies set targets for other pressures on nature, such as no conversion of natural ecosystems, reduced freshwater extraction and pollution, and establishing sustainable seafood value chains.

SBTN’s methods take companies through a five-stage process:

Assess how much a company puts pressure on nature
Prioritise where a company should act, based on both where it puts the most pressure on nature and where nature is most sensitive to pressure
Set targets to reduce a company’s pressure in line with earth system boundaries and global goals
Act to achieve those targets
Track progress on all of the above

The key benefit of following SBTN is that it helps companies to set ambitious quantified targets based on a scientific understanding of what we collectively need to do to stay within planetary boundaries. SBTN also provides a validation service, which allows companies to get recognition for their ambition and efforts.

SBTN is compatible with other corporate sustainability frameworks such as CSRD and TNFD. The same underlying steps to assessing and prioritising company activities for target setting will help businesses to align with all three frameworks.

SBTN’s target setting guidance currently covers the most important pressures on nature, but it is not yet comprehensive. SBTs can therefore be used as a component of a broader nature strategy.

How we can help

The Biodiversity Consultancy is a global provider of strategic, technical and policy services for nature and biodiversity management in the private and public sectors. We have experience in helping companies pilot SBTN guidance and unpack how their science-based targets fit with other nature-related frameworks.

We take pride in our scientific expertise and have developed in-house technical approaches for efficiently assessing biodiversity impact and prioritising sites and pressures. Within the SBTN, we are part of the Biodiversity Hub — alongside the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP WCMC), The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International (CI), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — where we bring both ecological and industry perspectives to ensure the correct balance of pragmatism and rigour in the development of SBTs for biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Consultancy is well-placed to support your company in training and awareness about SBTs for nature, managing and understanding the potential biodiversity risks in your value chain, quantifying your biodiversity footprint, and identifying the actions you can take to apply SBTN’s AR3T framework.

Category: Insight