Indicators for measuring and reporting corporate nature-related impacts, dependencies, and risks

Abstract

Businesses are embedded within nature. Their supply chains, operations, and products fundamentally depend on and impact nature. These impacts and dependencies can give rise to nature-related risks (as well as related opportunities). However, despite growing expectations from stakeholders, most businesses are currently not adequately measuring and reporting on these. To date, it has not been clear whether this requires the development of entirely new indicators, or whether various existing sustainability reporting frameworks could provide sufficient information on nature-related risks. This paper evaluates the decision-usefulness of existing indicators for the softwood plantation forestry industry in Australia. Decision-usefulness is assessed against three criteria: (1) relevance and completeness; (2) faithful representation; and (3) comparability. The results show some potential for adaptation of indicators already used in sustainability-related corporate accounting and reporting, which could help reduce the reporting burden and encourage uptake. However, gaps remain in measuring the financial consequences for business from nature-related risks and in providing sufficient comparable information to evaluate performance across industries and locations. Implications are discussed in relation to recent recommendations from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) sustainability standards IFRS S1 and S2.