Gucci-Owner Kering, Drugmaker GSK and Others Are Developing Global Targets on Nature Loss

Over the past two years, the group has worked with more than 100 companies and 80 nonprofit organizations to develop its process. SBTN follows in the footsteps of the Science Based Targets initiative, the gold standard for corporate decarbonization targets which more than 2,000 companies have asked to validate their emissions-reduction plans.

Nature is rising up the corporate sustainability agenda: Nearly 200 nations signed the Global Biodiversity Framework in Decemberaiming to conserve at least 30% of the Earth’s land and water. Scientists and governments warn that there are significant economic costs to nature loss. The World Bank has said the collapse of various “ecosystem services”—natural systems that people rely on, such as pollination by bees—could wipe out $2.7 trillion a year from the global economy by 2030.

Protecting nature can also reinforce or even enhance climate action. Yet the issues surrounding nature loss are complex and many companies are unsure how to measure it or what to do. The Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, a business-backed effort to protect biodiversity, is working on a reporting frameworkand SBTN is developing standards to evaluate companies’ nature targets.

The SBTN standards can help companies move from multiple and conflicting definitions of what is enough action for nature, to consistent and replicable guidance that is comparable across companies, said Erin Billman, executive director of the Science Based Targets Network.

The SBTN standards can be classified into four topics: Land, freshwater, oceans and biodiversity. For each topic, companies need to zoom into specific locations, such as a farm on landscapes linked to deforestation or a factory drawing water from stressed reservoirs.

The first batch of standards focus on land and freshwater and the group expects to validate the first corporate targets on these two topics by the end of the year.

Water targets are more developed and have specified seven relevant metrics which include reducing the amount of freshwater that companies draw from a stressed basin and cutting agricultural pollution entering waterways.

Targets for land use are in an earlier stage. Companies will pilot targets including ensuring no grasslands, wetlands or forests are converted for economic activity, and reducing the amount of land used for agriculture while restoring natural habitats.

Gucci-owner Kering is preparing its land-use targets. It has been mapping out regions where it sources raw materials for a fund launched with environmental nonprofit Conservation International in 2021. The French luxury-goods company said it tracks 95% of the key materials it sources.

Leather represents more than half of Kering’s raw-material sourcing. It gets most of its leather from Europe, but South America is in focus because of the risk of deforestation from the cattle industry, said Sabrina Gonçalves Krebsbach, Kering’s sustainable sourcing and biodiversity specialist. At one location in Northern Chaco, Argentina, Kering pays local cattle farmers to restore native forests and vegetation and it also uses satellite monitoring to check no deforestation occurs.

“We expect that the landscapes will be similar [to the ones under the SBTN targets]” Gonçalves Krebsbach said. But the target-setting process will require experts to gather more data on the ground, she said.

Healthcare company GSK is working on targets to help meet its 2020 pledge to be water neutral by 2030, meaning it will replenish as much water as it uses in stressed areas. It has cut more than 5% of its water use so far. Pharmaceutical manufacturing accounts for more than 20% of the world’s water usage.

In 2020, GSK started to map out stressed water basins in its supply chain. It has identified three water-stressed areas where it has manufacturing: Algeria, India and Pakistan. In Nashik, India, for instance, its factory and suppliers draw from a strained water basin. From 2020 to 2022, it cut its water use by around 17% at the site through rainwater harvesting and efficiency upgrades such as through purified water reuse and process water recovery.

The U.K.-based drugmaker hopes SBTN’s standards will validate the outcomes of projects that replenish water in stressed basins, the first of which the company plans to announce soon, said Claire Lund, GSK’s vice president of sustainability.

“Is that the right logical approach? We hope it is,” she said.

Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com