This guide by the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is designed to help board members surface the decision-useful information they need to ensure that nature-related issues are being appropriately incorporated into the company’s governance, strategy, risk management and capital allocation decision making. The guide features 12 key questions that board directors may wish to ask company executives and consider in board meetings, and the sort of analysis they should expect to see from their organisations to support those discussions. The 12 questions have been identified based on discussions with experienced executive and non-executive board directors of leading organisations that are already considering climate- and nature-related issues.
12 key questions on nature to ask in the boardroom:
- How and where does our business depend and impact on nature?
- How do our dependencies and impacts on nature give rise to potential financial and non-financial risks?
- How do our dependencies and impacts on nature generate potential opportunities for the organisation?
- What is the interplay between our nature- and climate-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities?
- How are we assessing and measuring our potentially material nature-related issues across different time horizons? What data are we using and generating?
- How are we engaging with our value chain and Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, affected and other stakeholders to understand their views with respect to our nature-related issues?
- How does management integrate nature into short- and long-term decision-making?
- How do we expect our understanding of nature-related issues to change over time in our sector, and in the markets and locations in which we operate?
- Are we up to date with shifting regulatory developments, both voluntary and mandatory, industry standards and investor expectations across the jurisdictions in which we operate?
- Does the board and senior management team have the requisite skills and experience to adequately manage the organisation’s nature-related issues?
- Are the organisation’s skills and capabilities on nature-related issues, including assessment and learning, being institutionalised for the long term?
- Are we confident that we are fulfilling our legal duties in relation to nature across the jurisdictions in which we operate? What evidence do we have that we are doing so?
The TNFD produced this guide in collaboration with Chapter Zero, Competent Boards, Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) and Green Finance Institute (GFI).
Read the full guide here.
Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative