A new framework has been launched to help businesses and financial institutions understand their nature-related impacts, risks and opportunities.

The State of Nature Indicators and Metrics has been published by the Nature Positive Initiative and is a globally aligned minimum set of measurements for assessing changes in the state of nature.

The framework been developed with the objective of identifying a minimum set of indicators and metrics that are scientifically rigorous, practical to use, and accessible to a broad range of organizations.

It has been designed to help organisations assess their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.

More than 500 diverse experts and practitioners contributed to a two-year global process to establish the set of metrics.

And a review of the more than 600 existing state of nature metrics has been distilled into four core indicators with associated metrics for site and landscape, covering ecosystem extent, ecosystem condition, species extinction risk and species populations.

The framework has already been piloted by 29 companies across six sectors, more than 50 sites and 23 countries, including global businesses such as the Volkswagen Group, BHP, Iberdrola, Suzano and MS&AD.

Marco Lambertini, convener of the Nature Positive Initiative, said the creation of the new framework was driven by market demand, in an interview.

Lambertini added the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreed at COP15 in 2022 was another “trigger” for its creation, because having achieved the goal of setting a common direction on biodiversity, he said the next the question was how to measure it.

“As companies are beginning to understand the materiality of nature for them, but they are at loss in terms of how to measure and assess it,” he told me.

Tony Goldner, the chief executive of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, said most companies and financial institutions do not have ecologists on staff, therefore they do not understand the science of nature and its boundaries.

Goldner added the framework had been shaped by input from hundreds of companies, financial institutions and scientific experts.

“Nature is very complex, but our goal is to make it less complicated for business and financial institutions, who must interact with this important issue in the future,” he told me.

Goldner added the framework focuses on four core questions. The first being how does a business interface with nature in its business model and is its capital portfolio dependent on nature.

Secondly, it asks what is that eco-system condition improving or declining, and what is the condition of the eco-landscape in business locations.

Thirdly, he said it looks at a businesses’ impact on species in the locations in which it operates, and finally how healthy are the species populations present in any of its locations?

Lambertini said the biodiversity community has evolved dramatically in measuring nature over the years, now there are more than 600 metrics and indexes, which can be used.

“In terms of driving adoption, it’s really a problem, because it just creates that perception of complexity which leads to inaction and paralysis,” he added.

And both Lambertini and Goldner said nature loss, like climate disruption and resilience, is beginning to pop up in boardroom and financial discussions.

Goldner said there has been a “sharp uptake” over the last 18 months of investors recognising how nature is “lurking” as an invisible risk factor in their portfolios.

He added those investors want to turn the invisible visible, and once they can measure it, they can start to manage it.

“We are seeing how more and more investors are starting to understand and contextualize nature as a risk in their portfolio, and it’s triggering them to ask a lot of questions of their portfolio companies about how this is being managed,” added Goldner.

“It’s just like having to understand artificial intelligence, cyber security or political or geopolitical risk. We have to educate ourselves, and we have to be able to acquit ourselves as directors.”

Johan Rockström, director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said the framework provides a way to measure whether biodiversity is recovering, in a statement.

“It will equip actors to assess their overall impact, sharpen their strategies to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, strengthen their own resilience, and help keep society and the economy within a safe operating space,” added Rockström.