(Credit: IBAT)
GIST Impact and the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) have partnered to provide investors access to biodiversity data for investment decision-making.
GIST Impact, a corporate impact data and analytics provider, will now incorporate biodiversity and nature data from IBAT’s data on protected areas, threatened species, and other locations important for biodiversity. Investors can use this information to make better-informed decisions based on biodiversity-related risks and opportunities. Further, companies may access portfolio impacts in compliance with various ESG reporting standards, such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
GIST’s platform provides more than 1 million asset location data points to investors along with risk and proximity analyses of over 3,000 companies worldwide, across 58 sectors. The company reports plans to expand coverage further in early 2024 as well.
“Nature loss is at the heart of many of our greatest problems today, from climate breakdown and water scarcity, to public health deficiencies and rural poverty,” said Pavan Sukhdev, CEO of GIST Impact. “Knowing where biodiversity and ecosystems are still intact, and what we are losing and where, is essential to designing solutions, and that’s where IBAT’s extensive database is invaluable.”
Increased Interest in Biodiversity ESG Reporting and Investment
The GIST platform’s incorporation of IBAT’s biodiversity-based data follows trends in ESG reporting and investor interests. According to a recent report by Sustainable Fitch, concerns surrounding biodiversity and natural capital have led to rising interest in nature positive, biodiversity-based investing. Many policies have also been put in place to address the biodiversity crisis, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework established at the UN Biodiversity Conference in 2022.
Data access and lack of standardization act as potential barriers to biodiversity investment and reporting and expansion of the GIST platform can help address these concerns. By combining GIST’s asset-location database with IBAT’s data on protected areas, inventors may understand how corporate activities impact protected areas and locations crucial for biodiversity.
The Paulson Institute has identified a $700 billion financing gap leading up to 2030 that needs to be addressed in order to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. The think tank also cites the need for a transformational shift in how markets value nature. This realization has seemingly started to come about as companies witness natural capital lost to environmentally costly business practices. Tools such as those provided by GIST and IBAT can help avoid this in the future and instead promote investments that may reverse at least some of the damage.