From our solar system to nature's ecosystems
Our connection to different parts of the world and nature offers a unique lens through which we can understand the scale of the changes affecting our planet. One such remarkable event was witnessing the total solar eclipse. With the recent path for the total solar eclipse across North America, we would like to shine a light on the power of alignment, nature, and luck across systems.
On alignment: As the sun, moon, and earth align to create a rare wonder, it can also serve as a reminder that by bringing various, specific elements together at the right time and in the right place, we can achieve desired outcomes and have positive awe-inspiring results. Alignment brings clarity, people together and a reason to believe and move forward. And, in the case of the eclipse, political and economic differences were overshadowed and allowed all spectators to appreciate the beauty and power of nature.
On nature: We have so much technology that can control so much of our own environment: making it light when it is dark and changing the temperature to what we want. Yet, during the eclipse, nature quickly showed us that it too can “turn off the lights” and change the temperature, reminding us of the power of nature and life-giving forces of our sun.
On luck: Lucky was to be in the narrow path of totality and witness the eclipse in our parts of North America. As a species, we are all lucky to live in this narrow band of climatic and environmental conditions that allow humans to exist on our earth. For more context, watch our video on luck and humanity’s reliance on Nature that appeared on Impact Entrepreneur.
Now, if we can appreciate our luck just being here, get aligned on purpose and progress, and ignite the same sense of wonder for nature's ecosystems that we have for our solar system, we can witness even more incredible things, right here on earth.
One pathway or framework to help us get aligned and appreciate nature in our own context is the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
To continue on our TNFD Journey (see our TNFD Journey Part 1), it’s important to determine our material nature-related issues. These include our impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities connected to nature. These issues will outline the various ways in which our business – and our clients’ – interacts with nature, with consideration to how we influence nature and how it influences us in turn, both positively and negatively.
The TNFD framework provides the LEAP Approach to guide our assessment of nature-related issues. This approach encourages us to:
Locate our business’ interface with nature,
Evaluate our nature-related impacts and dependencies on nature in these locations,
Assess our nature-related risks and opportunities which stem from these impacts and dependencies, and how to
Prepare the material findings of our nature-related issues assessment to improve the management of nature within our business, and to align our disclosure with the TNFD requirements.
Step 1: Scope the LEAP assessment
The first step is to roughly scope the approach and purpose of the LEAP framework for our business. As a sustainability-centered business, this is perhaps more straight-forward for us than others, but still offers an important opportunity to clearly define as a team what we will focus on, how the LEAP assessment will be approached, and the purpose of us completing the assessment.
Step 2: Locate
In this phase, we must Locate where our business and associated actions interact with nature, including ecologically sensitive areas. These interfaces will later allow us to identify and assess any potentially material nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities.
Step 3: Evaluate
With our interfaces with nature identified, we can then Evaluate our impacts on nature and nature’s impacts on us. This phase requires us to list all relevant environmental assets and ecosystem services on which our business depends, and any of our impact (positive and negative) on these assets, services, and nature more broadly. Lastly, we must analyze these dependencies and impacts and rank them as high, medium, or low.
Step 4: Assess
With the ranked list of potentially material impacts and dependencies complete, the Assess phase requires us to identify and prioritize our relevant nature-related risks and opportunities (in consideration of our impacts and dependencies). This involves assessing and adapting any of our current risk management processes to account for nature-related issues.
Step 5: Prepare
With our various nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities identified and assessed, it is time to Prepare! Using the information from the above steps, we can internally discuss how we will respond and react to it and what information is material for the TNFD disclosure requirements. Any decisions made should be framed within a broader organizational structure and account for the short-, medium-, and long-term timeframes.
UP NEXT: Now that we have an overview of the LEAP approach, the next part of our TNFD Journey is to take a closer look at the business case for LEAPing for long-term value creation, as well as identifying Locations where our business and associated actions interact with nature. More to come in our TNFD Journey Part 3!