LEAP – the risk and opportunity assessment approach

: L1: Business Footprint

Place-based considerations are central for corporates with operations and/or value chain relationships in more than one setting, as well as for financial institutions with assets in companies across several geographies.

Local context is critical to accurately assess nature-related risks and opportunities. Nature impacts and dependencies are localised and therefore organisations need to make different considerations for the geographies their economic activities are located in. Unlike climate change mitigation which can be considered on an aggregate basis, when assessing nature, the organisation’s relationship with nature is defined by where those interactions occur.

Organisations are encouraged to deepen the understanding of their footprint as it relates to place (including offices, sites, and product life-cycles; and in the case of financial institutions, portfolios and investments in individual entities). In doing so, organisations should consider their value chains. This would include both upstream (inclusive of third-party suppliers) and downstream (inclusive of final product use and disposal) considerations. This analysis should be conducted across business units and asset classes (where relevant for financial institutions – see section LEAP approach for financial institutions (LEAP-FI).