As biodiversity loss, water scarcity and ecosystem degradation increasingly affect long-term business operations, sustainability reporting has expanded from climate to nature and biodiversity. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) offer complementary perspectives. Their official interoperability mapping can help organizations reuse assessment information and reduce duplicate work.
How the frameworks differ: impacts outward and dependencies inward
GRI and TNFD complement each other, but begin materiality assessment from different perspectives.
GRI: impacts the organization has on the world
GRI focuses on actual and potential impacts of an organization's operations and value-chain activities on the economy, the environment and people, including human rights. It uses an impact-materiality perspective. GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024 sets disclosure requirements for biodiversity impacts and management and is effective for reporting from 1 January 2026.
TNFD: nature-related financial risks and opportunities
Changes in nature can affect a company's input supply, operating locations, assets and markets, creating financial risks and business opportunities. TNFD covers the organization's dependencies and impacts on nature as well as the “outside-in” effects of nature on the business. Its flexible materiality approach can support both impact and financial materiality assessment.
TNFD's four disclosure pillars are governance, strategy, risk and impact management, and metrics and targets. They guide organizations to bring nature into Board oversight, corporate strategy, enterprise risk management and performance targets.
The LEAP approach provides a structured assessment process:
- Locate: Identify where operations and the value chain interface with nature.
- Evaluate: Assess dependencies and impacts on nature.
- Assess: Identify and evaluate nature-related risks and opportunities.
- Prepare: Develop responses and prepare reporting and disclosures.
Official cooperation: reuse data while meeting each framework's requirements
In July 2024, GRI and TNFD published an interoperability mapping to help report preparers identify common information and additional disclosures. The mapping notes that:
- Concepts and definitions for drivers of nature loss are aligned.
- LEAP can connect with GRI 101 assessments of location and ecologically sensitive areas.
- GRI 101 disclosures can be mapped to TNFD recommendations, while TNFD-specific risk and opportunity assessment may require additional information.
- Global core metrics are highly aligned, with an initial mapping also provided for sector metrics.
Practical application: build a shared assessment record
Organizations can use LEAP to organize locations, value chains, nature dependencies and impacts, and maintain traceable location and metric data. They can then use the official mapping to check GRI and TNFD disclosure scope, materiality judgments and any additional information separately.
Reusing data can reduce workload, but one assessment does not automatically satisfy both frameworks or every domestic ESG disclosure requirement. Confirm coverage against actual operations, applicable rules and the purpose of the report.
Comparison of key dimensions
| Dimension | GRI | TNFD |
|---|---|---|
| Materiality | Significant impacts on the economy, environment and people | Nature-related financial risks and opportunities; can also be considered alongside impact materiality |
| Information users | Stakeholders such as employees, communities, customers, suppliers and investors | Investors and other users of nature-related information in financial markets |
| Core structure | Universal, sector and topic standards; management of material topics | Four pillars and nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities (DIRO) |
| Assessment tools | GRI 101 references LEAP and definitions related to ecologically sensitive areas | LEAP supports locating, evaluating dependencies and impacts, assessing risks and opportunities, and preparing disclosure |
| Disclosure focus | Impacts, policies, management measures, performance and engagement | Governance, strategy, risk and impact management, metrics and targets |
| Topic coverage | Broad sustainability topics across the economy, environment and people | Nature-related topics |
A practical implementation sequence
- Assessment — apply LEAP. Identify nature dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across operations and the value chain; create location and data records.
- Material topics — apply GRI impact materiality. Use the assessment to identify significant impacts and also consider the financial implications of nature topics for the organization.
- Governance and strategy — refer to the TNFD pillars. Bring nature into Board oversight, corporate strategy and risk management, then set relevant targets and metrics.
- External reporting — check each framework separately. Use GRI to report impacts and management performance, then check TNFD for nature-related risks, opportunities and other applicable information.
Official references
- TNFD/GRI: Accompanying guidance to the interoperability mapping (July 2024)
- GRI: GRI and TNFD make reporting on biodiversity easier (30 July 2024)
- GRI 101 Biodiversity standard and effective date