Nature-based Insetting is working with the TNFD and Global Canopy
Nature-based Insetting Ltd applies cutting edge research to help businesses implement nature-based solutions with integrity. NbI achieves this by analysing biodiversity and human wellbeing-related impacts and risks, and then identifying opportunities for lowering risk by implementing nature-based solutions that are effective, net-zero aligned, ecologically sound and socially just. We help our corporate clients develop location and commodity-specific roadmaps for setting and achieving evidence-based targets for climate, nature, and its biodiversity. As a spin out of Nature based Solutions Initiative, NbI works at the interface between research and practice. The Executive Director, Dr. Cécile Girardin and non-Executive Director, Prof. Nathalie Seddon, are also the Founding Directors of NbSI, are both actively involved in several other sustainable finance and nature conservation programmes across the University, including Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and the Agile Initiative.
We focus on markets with direct impacts on landscapes and seascapes – predominantly fast-moving consumer goods companies and asset management companies. The majority of our work is aimed at providing long term strategy support for businesses in these markets, including research, analysis, quantification, and modelling services. In the longer term, our quantitative model -which sits at the heart of our strategy support- is being developed for a wide range of commodities and landscapes and will ultimately be offered as a monitoring and reporting tool, in line with TNFD disclosure requirements.
The private sector is increasingly engaged in the climate and biodiversity crisis. Yet companies struggle to respond, due to a lack of clear guidance on how to set and achieve transparent, data-driven goals for nature. How these commitments can be implemented, monitored, and regulated in a socially just context remains to be demonstrated, as the mechanisms to ensure accountability and transparency are still being developed.
Over the past 18 months, we have developed a comprehensive analytical framework supported by a quantitative model that allows us to address nature-related risks and opportunities for companies. We have developed this framework in close consultation with corporates, financial institutions, and academic partners, balancing pragmatism and ecological integrity. This is core to our approach with businesses, which typically consists of key phases in helping build biodiversity strategy: (i) executive education, (ii) roadmapping, (iii) qualitative and quantitative analysis, (iv) implementation, and (v) monitoring and reporting.
Our quantitative model lies at the heart of NbI’s approach. It assesses nature and biodiversity impacts and risk across commodity production landscapes and is built using a combination of nature-related and geographical data, to give the most granular insights into the state of biodiversity possible for a specific area, across multiple factors such as land use, climate change, habitat fragmentation, disturbance from infrastructure, encroachment and local nitrogen deposition, as well catchment-wide impacts of land use intensity on rivers and wetlands. Overall, this gives our clients a comprehensive and multidimensional perspective on their nature-related risks, ultimately informing strategy on interventions to mitigate and adapt to these risks. We have modularised our modelling workflow and to ensure it can be adapted to multiple supply chains, and are currently testing it on different commodities. The continuing development of our quantitative model has provided strong research insights on available metrics, data and tools – and crucially – on how to apply them pragmatically to build a baseline for impact and inform strategy on mitigating and adapting to nature-related risks.
Working with corporates
Over the past year, we have been working closely with Reckitt, to co-design a biodiversity strategy and roadmaps for five major commodities in their value chain. Throughout this process we have engaged in regular discussions to ensure our methodology has struck the balance between scientific rigour and scalability, so that quantitative insights can be evolved into strategy and action in reasonable timescales. This process has allowed us to develop and pilot our analytical framework and model. We have presented our approach at conferences (NbS conference 2022, UN Climate Action Summit, COP27) and webinars (TNFD, WWF, Accenture, Pinsent Masons, the NbSI Executive Education course, to name a few), allowing us to incorporate feedback from industry, NGOs, and academia to address our stakeholder’s needs.
We are currently in the process of onboarding three new corporations to the NbI programme.
A TNFD pilot
We are currently piloting our analytical framework and the NbI model with TNFD for one of Reckitt’s key commodities – Latex, where we work with Earthworm Foundation. And are developing a similar pilot on Palm Oil for 2023, where we will be working with the Sumatran Orangutan Society and Earthworm Foundation. This process ensures that our approach is aligned with and informs the evolution of the TNFD LEAP process. For the Latex pilot, we have progressed in all aspects of the LEAP framework and are working on refining our estimates to provide quantitative estimates for Reckitt’s disclosures on risks, dependencies, and opportunities associated with biodiversity impacts at the landscape scale.
Partnering with Global Canopy
For many market participants the assessment of nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities within their operations and value chains is nascent. Expert technical support can prove invaluable to aid these corporations in both understanding and implementing elements of the TNFD beta framework. Nature based Insetting will work with Global Canopy to provide Analytical support for two in-depth corporate pilots within Global Canopy’s TNFD-Supported piloting program.
Learn more on the Nature-based Insetting website.
