The TNFD is a globally recognised initiative that has developed disclosure recommendations for companies and financial institutions to assess, manage and disclose their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.
“Asia represents over 50 per cent of the 620 global organisations that have adopted the TNFD framework so far,” said Candice Dott, director of market engagement at TNFD. A recent survey by TNFD showed that 86 per cent of Asia Pacific companies have been reporting or are planning to report nature-related metrics.
She said rapid uptake in Asia reflects both investor expectations and regulatory preparedness, highlighting strong participation from the real estate, construction, banking and insurance sectors.
“TNFD was created to address the growing recognition that nature loss poses material financial risks, similar to climate change,” said Dott.
“Much of Asia’s progress builds on existing work through frameworks such as GRI [Global Reporting Initiative] and CDP [Carbon Disclosure Project], which have already embedded environmental disclosure practices over many years.”
Other industrial standard setters are following suit – the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) recently launched its first set of standards dedicated to biodiversity reporting.
Dott added that many Asian companies are now producing second- and even third-generation nature-related reports, demonstrating that the TNFD framework is taking root beyond early adopters.
“Asia and Latin America, followed by Europe, have reported against the majority of the 14 TNFD recommended disclosures – Asia is clearly leading the charge in alignment,” she said.
‘Gradual but valuable’
Esther An, chief sustainability officer, City Developments Limited, which published its first TNFD-aligned report earlier this year, said many companies are “still learning by doing” as they adopt the framework.
She noted that her company has used the GRI biodiversity standards for years and is now transitioning to the new TNFD-aligned version.
“TNFD builds on the familiar four pillars of governance, strategy, risk management and metrics, but extends them to 14 indicators,” said An, also speaking at the Unlocking capital for sustainability event in Singapore.
“We follow the LEAP approach – locate, evaluate, assess and prepare – to understand how our business interacts with nature.”
An stressed that the process is gradual but valuable.
“It’s not about quantity but quality. We’re making steady progress across different markets, learning as we go,” she said. “My advice is to take the leap of faith – start reporting, and you’ll find both risks and opportunities along the way.”
That transition from existing sustainability frameworks to TNFD is also taking place at APRIL Group, one of the world’s largest pulp and paper producers.
Craig Tribolet, the company’s director of sustainability and external affairs, said APRIL’s long-standing reporting practices are shaped by its dependence on nature, a dependency that has guided APRIL’s decade-long sustainability reporting efforts.
Since launching its Sustainability Management Policy in 2015, the company has refined its disclosures through the GRI and welcomed GRI’s recent alignment with the TNFD framework, which he said will help strengthen consistency and transparency across reports.
“We value these critical frameworks because they are the foundation of trust-building in the marketplace,” said Tribolet, adding that the company plans to submit its TNFD application this week.
“For companies operating at the forefront [and] exposed to nature day to day, reporting offers trust, disclosure and access to stakeholders and markets that we wouldn’t otherwise have,” he said. [We depend] entirely on nature. We don’t operate without it.”
Next steps
Dott said the next step for companies is integrating climate and nature-related reporting, reflecting how the two crises are inseparable.
“Seventy-eight per cent of the survey respondents in our status report have published nature-related disclosures integrated with climate-related reporting,” she said. “It’s really important to start thinking about nature as a component that can be embedded into adaptation and transition plans. No pathway to net zero happens without nature.”
An agreed that climate and biodiversity must be seen as “two sides of the same coin.”
“You can’t solve the climate challenge without looking at nature,” she said. “Nature will call the shots.”
Describing biodiversity loss as a “silent crisis”, Tribolet said it demands the same level of attention as climate change.
“We all rely on nature, regardless of where we sit in the supply chain,” he said. “If we continue to ignore it, we’ll wake up one day with nothing around us and a business environment that is no longer tenable for anybody.”
