Organizations—particularly those operating in sectors that depend on natural resources like mining, renewables, and real estate—are under growing pressure from stakeholders to minimize their environmental footprint and actively contribute to the conservation and restoration of natural environments.
For most companies, a successful sustainability journey requires some form of environmental impact reporting. The largest companies globally have already incorporated elements of sustainability reporting: According to the latest
KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting, 95% of the G250 (the 250 largest global companies by revenue) and 79% of the N100 (top 100 companies in 58 countries) now report on sustainability.
As nature and biodiversity emerge as critical areas of focus in the broader sustainability conversation, companies are recognizing the importance of transparency in their environmental impact reporting. While much attention has been given to climate change and carbon emissions disclosures, meeting nature and biodiversity mandates is just as critical.
The Challenges with Biodiversity Reporting
Unlike climate-related disclosures, which benefit from standardized, globally recognized metrics such as CO2e, there is currently no uniform set of indicators to measure biodiversity impact. As the sheer number of biodiversity metrics has grown, organizations find it challenging to determine which are the most reliable and applicable to their specific use case, environmental researchers concluded in a
recent report published in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources.
Without industry norms, roadmaps, or global metrics, accurately measuring impact is difficult. Organizations often use different methodologies and data, leading to incomparable (and often unreliable) analyses.
This issue is even more pronounced in the mining and renewables sectors—67% of organizations in the mining industry and 75% in the renewables industry surveyed recently by Trinity Consultants and independent research firm Verdantix say their number challenge is the lack of uniform standards and indicators to measure biodiversity impact.
As a result, reporting across these sectors is incomplete and immature, largely due to the complexities and variabilities in ecological systems, which make it difficult to accurately account for and predict the long-term effects of project development. Around 40% of the organizations interviewed do not make nature and biodiversity disclosures. Of the 60% that do, just 8% say that their nature and biodiversity disclosures are more mature than their carbon emissions disclosures. This suggests that as corporate carbon accounting becomes a routine operational practice, the focus may shift toward addressing nature and biodiversity, building on the momentum already underway.
At the same time, the push for more transparent biodiversity disclosures—outside of regulatory requirements—is escalating. One such example is the GRI 14: Mining Sector 2024 standard, which introduces more stringent requirements for data quality. The standard mandates that organizations report on topics such as biodiversity, water usage, community impact, and emissions as well as the methodologies and assumptions used during data collection and reporting. Despite this increased push for greater transparency, industry leaders report that collection techniques across sites are inconsistent, making it hard to collect accurate, comparable data.
Enabling Reliable and Credible Biodiversity Reporting
Digital tools and strategies can help bridge this gap in biodiversity reporting.
According to PwC, a significant number of companies are already enhancing their tech systems to enable investor-grade sustainability reporting. This shift is driven by the growing demand for reliable sustainability data, which not only measures performance but also reveals opportunities to generate value.
Three key strategies can help you harness the power of digital tools and strategies to ensure that your biodiversity impact data is reliable and credible:
- Implement advanced data collection and reporting systems: Reducing your firms’ reliance on manual data collection and management and moving to digital collection can reduce inefficiencies, version control issues, and human error. An enterprise-wide ESG information architecture not only streamlines data management but also offers real-time tracking and analysis of biodiversity impacts. According to our survey, around 40% of organizations currently leverage software to collect, analyze, and disclose nature and biodiversity data, with three quarters of organizations using ESG and sustainability software for regulatory compliance for these purposes. By automating environmental monitoring, you can proactively monitor and adjust your operations to meet the demands of a shifting regulatory landscape.
- Collaborate with external experts to validate and verify data: Data audits can help you identify errors, inconsistencies, and process oversights relating to nature and biodiversity data and help you standardize processes across departments and sites. Given the complexity of biodiversity and nature-related data collection, many firms are choosing to work with external consultants to ensure the quality and accuracy of their reporting. In fact, 74% of companies (and 92% of firms in the utilities sector) are seeking external data assurance and verification, underscoring the growing demand for third-party validation. This not only boosts the credibility of your data but also helps your company stay ahead of evolving regulations and stakeholder expectations.
- Commit to long-term digital reporting: Digital tools enable consistent, accurate, and transparent biodiversity reporting, and this builds credibility.
With the rising importance of biodiversity in sustainability strategies, digital tools are key to producing accurate, timely, and investor-grade data. Read more about our services and learn more about how organizations are harnessing digital to address nature-related challenges within their operations in our research report, “
Building the Business Case for Nature Positivity.”
