TNFD’s Wall Street announcement signals a shift in priorities for global business
In a landmark move for nature, the Taskforce on Nature-based Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has published its finalised recommendations for corporate disclosure on nature-related impacts and risks following two years of development and testing.
Announced in Wall Street and set against the backdrop of Climate Week New York and the UN General Assembly, TNFD signals the need for immediate action, placing climate-related risk and biodiversity loss high on the agenda for global businesses.
“The recommendations and guidance will enable business and finance to integrate nature into decision making, and ultimately support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes.” – TNFD
This announcement was particularly exciting for the team at Environment Bank, also in attendance at Climate Week NYC. Our CEO, James Cross, was honoured to be invited to the TNFD’s private launch event on Sunday 18th September alongside leading policymakers, industry experts and government officials. James was thrilled to witness such a significant turning point in revolutionising the relationship between nature and capital.
Companies have already begun to publicise their intentions for TNFD-aligned disclosure and reporting, including GSK who have promised their first report for 2026 using data from 2025. Other businesses, such as Holcim, Reckitt, and Natura&Co, were already in the process of trialling TNFD as it went through development.
Beyond these early adopters, we expect a strong uptake in support for the framework in anticipation of the next World Economic Forum Annual Meeting this coming January in Davos.
Growing pressure on businesses
The framework includes 14 recommended disclosures for nature-related impacts, risks, and dependencies across the value chain alongside additional implementation guidelines. This will allow businesses to adopt a standardised disclosure format that stakeholders such as investors and regulators will accept.
Much as we saw climate-risk reporting become mandatory in several countries following the introduction of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework, disclosure of dependencies and impacts on biodiversity via frameworks such as the TNFD and the Science-Based Targets Network (SBTN) will no doubt become a requirement for all businesses in the very near future.
Within the EU, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive 2023 (CSRD) has already made it compulsory for large companies operating predominantly in Europe (over 50,000 organisations, including non-EU firms) to regularly publish auditable reports on their social and environmental impact activities.
Once risks and dependencies are fully outlined, the hope is that this will stimulate change in business practices with investors being able to see the true extent of their investment risk. And the question remains – once biodiversity impacts have been disclosed, what nature positive actions can be taken to restore biodiversity that has been lost?
The emerging biodiversity credits market
New mechanisms are now emerging that will enable businesses to invest in tangible biodiversity restoration projects, proactively anticipating imminent biodiversity risk disclosure legislation. A solution that provides a radical opportunity for businesses to set themselves apart and take meaningful steps to become truly nature positive.
Biodiversity credits are designed for companies looking to do more than just mitigate their environmental harm – enabling them to purchase shares in nature positive actions to restore biodiversity carried out on their behalf.
Most emerging biodiversity credit projects are relying on corporate investment for habitat creation to even start, causing a critical delay in the development of recovery sites. The lack of secured funding is also causing significant project uncertainty, with businesses being unable to know whether the credit provider will still be operating to oversee the habitat for the long-term.
Our solution for this market
Environment Bank is pioneering a groundbreaking new model that is entirely different – offering businesses a transparent, low-risk, high-added-value opportunity to embark on their nature positive journey. The best part is that we have already started.
Nature urgently needed restoring at scale, so we have already secured a substantial £240m (~$300m) investment from the Gresham House British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund, allowing us to deliver long-term recovery projects already forward funded for their full lifetime.
We are now delivering measurable results, confident that our long-term projects will yield remarkable uplifts for biodiversity. We are now inviting businesses to join with us on the path to nature recovery and take a share in these uplifts for their entire lifetime.
Find out more about Biodiversity Credits by Environment Bank