The TNFD framework (final recommendations published September 2023) addresses the systemic gap in climate-focused ESG disclosure: the failure to account for organizations' dependencies on and impacts to nature — ecosystems, biodiversity, and the natural processes that underpin economic activity. The World Economic Forum estimates that $44 trillion of annual economic value generation is moderately or highly dependent on nature. Financial institutions whose portfolios are exposed to nature-dependent sectors face material transition risks as regulatory frameworks (EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, Global Biodiversity Framework Target 15) and market mechanisms (biodiversity net gain requirements, deforestation regulations) progressively internalize nature-related costs.
The LEAP assessment process provides the analytical foundation for TNFD disclosure. Locate identifies the organization's footprint relative to sensitive ecosystems using geospatial analysis: operations and supply chain activities are mapped against the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) database of IUCN Red List species ranges, Key Biodiversity Areas, Protected Area boundaries, and Global Forest Watch tree cover data. Evaluate assesses the dependencies and impacts of each business activity on ecosystem services using the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) database, which maps 167 business processes to their dependencies on 21 ecosystem services and potential impacts across 30 environmental drivers.
Biodiversity footprint quantification — moving beyond dependency/impact identification to numerical expression of nature impact — remains methodologically immature relative to carbon footprinting. Emerging approaches include the Global Biodiversity Score (developed by CDC Biodiversité), MSA (Mean Species Abundance) based metrics used in the GLOBIO model, and the Biodiversity Footprint for Financial Institutions (BFFI) methodology developed by ASN Bank and PRé Sustainability. Each produces different numerical outputs, limiting cross-company comparability, but the GBF Target 15 requirement for businesses to assess and disclose dependencies and impacts on biodiversity by 2030 is accelerating convergence toward standardized metrics.
The Prime Logic Environmental Intelligence Platform's Biodiversity Intelligence Module implements TNFD LEAP assessment workflows: automated geospatial screening of operation and supply chain locations against IBAT, KBA, Protected Area, and GFW datasets; ENCORE dependency and impact scoring for business activity classifications; biodiversity footprint calculation using MSA methodology for terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem categories; and TNFD disclosure package generation across the four recommended disclosure pillars (Governance, Strategy, Risk and Impact Management, Metrics and Targets). The GIS Dashboard Suite provides spatial biodiversity risk heat maps for portfolio-level nature risk assessment required by financial institution TNFD adopters.