Putting State of Nature metrics to the test: 2025 Piloting Programme

In May 2024, the Nature Positive Initiative embarked on a mission to establish consensus on a unified set of credible and practical metrics to measure the state of nature. The focus of the project is to identify the best available indicators and metrics and integrate these into existing frameworks and standards; this in turn will promote global consistency and encourage collective action toward measurable nature-positive outcomes.

After extensive research and consultation (see here for more background), a draft set of terrestrial metrics is now ready for businesses to test in practice. The learnings from pilot projects will be used to further enhance and refine the metrics, as well as to develop comprehensive supporting guidance on how to measure them.

The 2025 Piloting Programme will focus on corporates and financial institutions (FIs) as initial users of the metrics. It will be looking to understand whether corporates and FIs are able to measure the metrics, using the draft supporting guidance, and apply them in different use cases to help drive nature-positive outcomes, e.g. strategy development, target-setting, projects or initiatives, and accounting/disclosures. A cohort of piloting projects is being identified to try to maximize coverage and diversity as far as possible, including across sectors and geographies.

A high level piloting timeline is outlined below:

Each pilot company will partner with one of the 27 Nature Positive Initiative organizations to test the metrics within a specific framework or project. Piloters will also join a Community of Practice to access a helpdesk and supporting guidance and to share their feedback, which will be coordinated by Ernst & Young and The Biodiversity Consultancy.

How to get involved

• If you are a corporate or financial institution

The most important step is to find a piloting partner from the 27 Nature Positive Initiative organizations; for example TNFD and GRI are actively recruiting piloting companies right now. Your partner will share the piloting guidelines and work with you to develop a project proposal. Completed proposal information will need to be shared with your partner by COB Monday 24 March. You will be contacted to confirm whether your proposal has been accepted by mid-April. To support you in discussing piloting with your internal stakeholders, a one-page flyer is available here. 

• If you provide products or services that could facilitate the use of state of nature metrics

The focus of the pilots will be engaging directly with corporates and financial institutions, however we recognize that there is also lots of interest from product and service providers. You are welcome to provide your contact details via the form here so that you could be contacted if a potential opportunity arises in future relevant to your services. 

Further information

For further information and updates on some of the Nature Positive Initiative’s other work in 2025, including the development of freshwater and marine metrics, join our coming webinar: 

🗓️Date: Monday 3 March, World Wildlife Day

🕑Time: Option 1: 9.00-10.00 GMT; Option 2: 16.00-17.00 GMT

✍️Register: Option 1; Option 2

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