Understanding what it means to be a TNFD early adopter
With the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures opening its early adopter window in November, we sat down with OVO’s Sustainability Manager, Ella Thomson, to find out more about what’s involved and what support is available for businesses seeking to join TNFD.
For those unfamiliar, what is the TNFD – and what does it ask companies to do, in a nutshell?
TNFD is a framework that helps companies understand their impact on the natural world based on their business activities. It also highlights their dependencies on nature, such as water or land use, along with the related risks and opportunities. The expectation is that businesses will then act on this information and report on their progress.
Why did OVO choose to become an early adopter of the TNFD framework?
We have been actively supporting nature recovery for more than ten years, and this work has always been positive for us and resonated strongly with our customers. Over the past three years, however, nature has risen on the sustainability agenda and now needs to be integrated into corporate governance. For us, becoming an early adopter of TNFD was the obvious next step.
What support and resources are available?
TNFD publishes a wide range of sector-specific guidance, for example, for oil and gas. However, if guidance for your sector is not available, you can still draw on elements that are relevant to your business. The Green Finance Institute hosts the TNFD consultation group, which early adopters can join. They also facilitate excellent events, which we have found really valuable.
We used ENCORE to assess our impact. It provides a heatmap of where to focus and helps with prioritisation. We have also used the Science-Based Target Network for Nature’s screening tool. It serves a similar purpose, but with slightly different industry classifications. Using both has proved helpful.
How does assessing nature impact differ from carbon?
TNFD requires you to assess your impact at a much more granular, location-based level. For instance, carbon has the same impact no matter where it’s released, but a wind turbine in one part of the UK can have a very different impact on nature if built in another. It’s a really interesting shift, and we’re now using the technical assessment to develop a considered approach to becoming a more nature positive organisation.
What advice would you give to a company just starting out with TNFD?
- Start small and work your way up – we started looking at a particular subset of our value chain, and we’ll be building out from there. You’re not expected to understand your entire business value chain.
- Take it one step at a time – pick one area from the ENCORE assessment to familiarise yourself with the process and what’s involved [Locate – Evaluate – Assess – Repair] – this is the process of how TNFD understands your nature impact
- Prioritise – use ENCORE and STBN – to identify one priority area, pick one that you know you have the information and the people around you to move forward
- Data – understand that data won’t be 100% accurate, that it can be difficult to source, and it won’t always be perfect. But what you can source will help you make an educated decision
How can organisations become a TNFD early adopter?
TNFD will open up the next early adopter sign-up window at COP in November. You will need to publish who you are, the nature of your business, and this information will be featured in a press release.
For more information visit: https://tnfd.global/
Find out more about OVO’s climate and nature journey in this Climate Action Programme case study
This interview was arranged as part of our Climate Action Programme – a free programme of practical support that enables organisations of all sizes and at varying starting points to accelerate climate action.
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