How to Communicate Your Nature Positive Story with Credibility
Why Credibility Matters for Your Nature Positive Story
The cutting edge of corporate sustainability leadership is advancing beyond climate commitments and water reduction targets to nature strategy, nature restoration, and nature positive claims. The term “biodiversity handprint” has been coined to describe a company’s positive impacts on biodiversity, in contrast to the “environmental footprint” describing ecological damage.
Companies that differentiate through sustainability are mobilizing to communicate their biodiversity handprint, but many are doing it in a way that presents material risks and misses significant opportunities:
Failing to acknowledge and address an environmental footprint while claiming a handprint exposes a firm to litigation and reputational risk associated with greenwashing.
Starting with the environmental footprint enables firms to reduce greenwashing risk, uncover hidden financial risks, and identify the highest ROI nature opportunities for the business and for nature.
Restoration is more likely to succeed and deliver a strong return once the pressures on an ecosystem have first been reduced. This is increasingly true as climate change adds further stress to already strained ecosystems. For more on this, see our insight on Protecting Your Nature Investment: Why Reducing Ecosystem Pressures Must Come First.
Key takeaway: Start your nature story with the footprint you need to address, not the project you want to promote.
The Five Steps to a Credible Nature Positive Story
In this article we outline the five steps to building and communicating a credible (and optimal!) nature positive story:
Assess your biodiversity footprint and identify your greatest financial risks
Prioritize the sites to take action and identify goals and targets
Measure baseline biodiversity levels at priority sites
Monitor and track biodiversity levels over time
Once an increase in biodiversity is observed, claim your nature positive contribution
Step 1: Assess Your Environmental Footprint
Companies should first identify their greatest nature-related risks and opportunities, which fall into two dimensions:
Impacts — how your company puts pressure on the ecosystems where it operates, or affects resources on which local communities rely. This can include resource extraction, air, water, soil, or noise pollution, or converting natural land to a less natural state. Prioritize where you are having the biggest impact on the most important ecosystems.
Dependencies — how nature degradation and loss could create financial risk for your business. Examples include reliance on a shrinking water supply for manufacturing, or dependence on healthy agricultural soils that are increasingly stressed by climate change. Your greatest dependencies on ecosystems in decline are your greatest risks.
Following the TNFD LEAP approach is the best way to uncover nature-related risks, and the Dunya Analytics platform performs these assessments in seconds. Companies are often surprised at the extent to which they have exposure to nature risks, and the transparency into risks and opportunities can have a significant impact on how capital is allocated to nature actions.
Step 2: Prioritize Sites and Set Goals and Targets
Use the insights from the risk assessment to prioritize sites and create action plans. Site selection matters because the value of an intervention changes based on its location. You can also identify opportunities where ecosystem restoration directly addresses a financial risk for the business, creating a win-win for the business, the environment, and communities.
With limited resources and a mandate to reduce financial risk, it makes financial sense to seek out the business case for nature restoration beyond storytelling. This protects nature investments during business downturns.
How to prioritize sites:
Screen all of your business locations – direct operations and supply chain – for location-based nature risk. It’s affordable to do so and uncovers hidden risks. If you don’t have access to supplier locations, it’s ok to start with the information you do have. See our insight on Assessing Nature Risk in the Supply Chain with the Data You Already Have.
Conduct on-site assessments at high priority sites to validate and calibrate screening results.
Document risks and opportunities, and develop action plans in line with the SBTN’s AR3T Framework:
Avoid and Reduce pressures on nature loss.
Regenerate and Restore so that nature can recover.
Transform underlying systems in which companies are embedded to address the drivers of nature loss.
Choosing the right action:
Your greatest opportunities might be in business transformation initiatives rather than ecosystem restoration. Don’t overlook these opportunities, because ignoring your impacts is the root of greenwashing risk. Though impact reduction may not sound as exciting as ecosystem restoration, your stakeholder may see it as much more important and valuable.
To count as nature positive, investments also need to be additional, meaning they would not have happened otherwise, and they cannot simply shift the pressure to another location. Both are also greenwashing safeguards.
Step 3: Measure Baseline Biodiversity Levels at Priority Sites
Measurement comes before action. In order to make credible, audit-proof claims of nature-positive contributions, you need a robust measurement plan that starts with conducting an initial baseline assessment. The Nature Positive Initiative has drafted State of Nature metrics to help companies standardize how biodiversity is measured and tracked, covering indicators like ecosystem condition and species extinction risk. Guidance on measuring these specific indicators is expected to be finalized by the end of 2026.
You will need to select metrics that are appropriate for the type of ecosystem in which you are investing, the type of claim you want to make, and your budget.
Step 4: Monitor and Track Biodiversity Levels Over Time
With a baseline measurement documented, restoration can begin. Ensure you are conducting measurements on a regular basis to ensure your restoration approach is working. All ecosystems are unique, so what works in one ecosystem may not work in another. Nature restoration is not something you can set and forget.
Also, expect restoration to take time. Some companies tend to take a short-term view of investments wanting to see results in one to two years, but effective restoration may take much longer.
Many nature positive investments can also benefit from collaboration across organizations, since other entities often depend on the same natural resources your company does. This can feel like an added complication, but joint ventures often reduce your own investment requirement.
Step 5: Claim Your Nature Positive Contribution
Now it is time to make nature-positive claims, providing evidence carefully collected through an appropriate measurement system. These claims should be presented alongside your nature strategy communications, acknowledging your remaining impacts, business transformation initiatives that have reduced ecosystem pressures, and evidence-based improvements in biodiversity where you have made nature positive investments.
How Long Does This Take, and Can You Talk About It Before You Have Results?
A credible nature story typically takes a few years to build, from initial risk assessment to measurable impact, but you do not need to wait for results to start talking about it.
Sharing your assessment results and plans for addressing the nature risks that matter most, to your business and to the ecosystems you depend on, positions you as a sustainability leader and signals real commitment to change, even before the biodiversity gains show up in the data.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a biodiversity footprint and a biodiversity handprint?
Your biodiversity footprint is the pressure your company puts on ecosystems, through impacts like pollution or land conversion, or through dependencies on natural resources. Your handprint is the positive contribution you make through nature investments, such as restoration or habitat creation. Footprint accountability comes first.
What is the TNFD LEAP approach?
The TNFD LEAP approach is the framework used to assess nature-related risks and identify priority sites, the locations where biodiversity importance and negative impacts are both significant.
Do we need full supplier location data before assessing supply chain nature risk?
No. Missing supplier location data is common. The TNFD guidance is to start with the information you already have and improve it over time, rather than waiting for complete data. You can get started now with whatever supplier data you have. See our insight on Assessing Nature Risk in the Supply Chain with the Data You Already Have.
Why does the location of a restoration project matter so much?
Context shapes how much a nature intervention is worth. A project sited away from where the real risk exists delivers less benefit both to the business and to nature. It also invites reputational scrutiny if stakeholders notice the mismatch between what is claimed and where the risk actually sits.
How long does it take to build a credible nature positive story?
Typically a few years, from initial risk assessment through to measurable biodiversity impact. Companies can and should communicate their plan before that impact is fully measurable.
Building a Credible Nature Positive Story
Turning "how do we tell our nature story?" into a credible, prioritized plan starts with a clear assessment of where your greatest nature risks lie. Platforms like Dunya Analytics give you a structured, data-backed way to do that, assessing and prioritizing nature risk across your business locations. Schedule a demo to learn more.
