What to Learn From SBTN Initial Target Validation Pilot?

The Science Based Targets Network’s (SBTN) Initial Target Validation Pilot Summary Report (2024) provides key insights into the pilot phase of validating corporate science-based targets (SBTs) for nature, focusing on land and freshwater. The pilot, which ran from May 2023 to June 2024, aimed to guide companies in setting scientifically robust, measurable targets that align with environmental thresholds and support biodiversity. All in all, the pilot shows ultimately that too much efforts are invested in top down approaches whereas what’s on the ground is already quite clear. Corporations are hiding behind insufficient traceability and data collection issues to forget focusing efforts on the most important: Their impacts on the ground.

Objectives and Framework of the Pilot

The pilot’s main goal was to help participating companies develop actionable and science-based nature targets. It focused primarily on two key areas: land use and freshwater systems. SBTN’s three-step framework was used to guide companies through the process:

• Step 1: Assess – This step involved an integrated assessment to identify priority locations and issues where nature-based targets are most needed.
• Step 2: Interpret and Prioritize – Companies applied both environmental and social considerations to prioritize actions.
• Step 3: Measure, Set, Disclose – In this final step, companies measured key environmental impacts, set specific targets, and disclosed their progress.

This approach ensures that companies address significant environmental pressures contributing to biodiversity loss and climate change. The emphasis was on providing companies with a structured process that connects corporate actions with global environmental objectives, thereby offering credibility and consistency to their sustainability efforts.

Challenges Encountered

The report highlights several challenges that the companies faced, mainly due to data availability and methodological gaps. For instance, accessing detailed, location-specific data was a significant barrier for companies. This is crucial for setting accurate freshwater targets, as many regions lack comprehensive environmental threshold data for their water basins.

Another challenge involved the complexity of tracing impacts throughout deep value chains. For example, the fashion industry struggled to gather reliable data at the farm level due to the seasonal variability in commodity sourcing and the global nature of supply chains. Additionally, companies noted that the current SBTN framework lacked adequate guidance for certain industrial inputs, such as polyester in textiles, which is not traditionally linked to land use but still has significant environmental impacts.

In some cases, existing frameworks, such as life cycle assessments for greenhouse gases and water footprints, provided useful starting points but did not offer the detailed, localized insights needed for SBTN’s nature-based targets. This gap led companies like H&M to engage in multi-stakeholder collaborations to generate the necessary data.

Key Learnings and Future Directions

Despite these challenges, the pilot provided valuable insights. One of the key takeaways is the importance of starting early, even with incomplete data. Companies like H&M and Suntory benefited from engaging with the process early, which allowed them to refine their approach over time and align their operations with emerging frameworks, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

The pilot also underscored the need for collaborative efforts to fill data gaps, especially at the local level. The SBTN is working on developing tools like the Basin Threshold Tool to assist companies in accessing relevant freshwater data for target setting. Additionally, the SBTN aims to expand its methodological coverage to include a wider array of pollutants and impacts, such as pesticide use and textile manufacturing waste, which are currently not fully accounted for.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the pilot marked a significant step forward in enabling companies to set science-based targets for nature. The key takeaways include the importance of collaboration, early engagement, and the need for more robust data systems. As the SBTN methodology evolves, it will continue to serve as a critical tool for companies aiming to align with global environmental limits while contributing to biodiversity conservation.

But in the end, the report and the initiative as a whole miss the point. The process takes time, and allows companies to draw basic conclusions that they undoubtedly needed to know beforehand. For example, all this work to come to the conclusion that some industries already under the EUDR spotlight, such as palm oil and cocoa, are at risk of degrading biodiversity? What a shame. It’s time to complement these “top-down” TNFD efforts with systemic territorial approaches. When we know that some of our agricultural raw materials or certain lines of construction activity actively contribute to soil artificialization and biodiversity degradation. When we know in which countries, and even which territories, most transactions take place. We know where to work. Without hiding behind a TNFD framework or non-existent data.

Picture designed by Freepik

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