On Tuesday, 23rd September, Moir Group ESG hosted a face-to-face breakfast event, “What Comes First in Navigating Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).”
We were joined by industry experts Dr Peter Holt from Deloitte’s Energy and Climate Advisory team, Chloe Fisher, Manager in Deloitte Australia’s Sustainability & Climate team, and Natalie Kyriacou OAM, award-winning environmentalist, who also shared insights from her new book.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- Nature is Landing on CFOs’ Desks: The room composition itself told the story: finance leaders, sustainability professionals, and senior executives from infrastructure to manufacturing. Nature-related financial disclosure isn’t a niche sustainability issue anymore; it’s a core business risk requiring practical guidance on assessment, management and reporting.
- The Timeline is Compressed: Nature disclosure is progressing dramatically faster than climate did. What took climate nearly a decade (Paris Agreement 2015 → TCFD 2017 → ISSB 2021) is happening for nature in just 2-3 years. Australian mandatory reporting is expected to follow climate disclosure requirements.
- Focus on What’s Material: The complexity is overwhelming, soil degradation, microplastics, water impacts, supply chain dependencies. The solution: focus on your organisation’s most material impacts. If every organisation addresses their material issues, collectively we cover the full system. You can’t do everything well, so do the important things excellently.
- Progress Over Perfection: Market leaders haven’t waited for complete information, they’ve simply taken the first step. The data centre example showed a pragmatic approach: Year 1 focused on what they control directly (proximity to protected areas), Year 2 tackles supply chain complexity. Start understanding your nature-related issues now; waiting for complete answers means never starting.
- Dependencies Matter More Than You Think: As Natalie Kyriacou OAM explained, the chocolate industry’s entire profits depend on an insect smaller than a pinhead. India’s vulture crisis cost $350 billion and half a million lives. These aren’t abstract environmental issues, they’re fundamental business risks. Understanding your dependencies isn’t just about disclosure; it’s about business resilience.
- Never Separate Nature and Climate: Climate change is one of the biggest drivers impacting nature. If you’ve assessed climate risks but haven’t considered nature, you have a disconnect in understanding your risk profile. The two are intrinsically linked and must be managed together.
- The ESG Backlash Has a Silver Lining: Current pushback forces us to demonstrate what’s truly material for business, not just rely on frameworks and buzzwords. It returns focus to the fundamental question: what’s really important for our business and society, and why? This strengthens the business case.
- Collaboration is Essential: Individual organisations duplicating the same research (like construction companies each trying to assess material impacts) is inefficient. Sector-wide solutions, university partnerships, and industry collaboration will accelerate progress. The sustainability community in Australia is small and interconnected, use that to advantage.
- Market Integrity is Critical: For natural capital markets to reach their potential, maintaining methodological rigour is essential. Lessons from carbon markets show that genuine additionality matters, doing something truly new, not business-as-usual dressed up differently.
- There’s an Innovation Funding Gap: We need significant investment in R&D and commercialisation to bridge the gap between where we are and where we need to be by 2040-2050 for a nature-positive, net-zero economy. This requires stronger national drive, similar to the US Inflation Reduction Act.
The question isn’t whether to engage with nature-related disclosures anymore, it’s how to do it in a way that drives real business value whilst managing fundamental dependencies and risks.
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