Making nature visible

As awareness of the importance of biodiversity for our economies and societies grows, so increases the expectation that businesses mitigate their impacts and transition to nature-positive business models. For companies, ‘making nature visible’ through high-quality biodiversity data is rapidly becoming a necessity. 

Biodiversity data are essential to understand how business activities interface with nature. These data can support companies’ efforts to mitigate possible physical and transition risks, help them set targets and measure progress, and inform strategic decision-making on nature-related issues. They are also necessary for aligning corporate sustainability reporting efforts with disclosure frameworks including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the recommendations of the Task force on nature-related financial disclosures (TNFD) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)'s new biodiversity standard. 

At the same time, ongoing data gaps and a growing number of biodiversity measurement tools and metrics make monitoring and disclosing nature-related impacts particularly challenging. KPMG Sweden’s Making nature visible report provides insights into how companies can navigate this complex landscape and deploy digital technologies to enhance their collection and use of biodiversity data. It was prepared in collaboration with R-evolution, the green-tech subsidiary of Hexagon AB.

In the report, KPMG Sweden and R-evolution focus especially on digital twins, virtual replicas of the natural environment made possible by sensors and other devices that seamlessly transmit data between the digital model and its real-world counterpart.  

Drawing on R-evolution’s own Green Cubes Digital Reality solution and its potential use cases in the mining sector, the report notes that digital twins can drastically improve the quality of biodiversity information and help track impacts in real-time. Through cutting-edge predictive modelling, digital twins can also lead to more informed decision-making, helping companies to improve operational efficiency and better integrate biodiversity in business models and investment strategies. 

• Businesses are increasingly expected to align their business models with global goals to protect and restore nature. For companies, this transition to a nature-positive trajectory represents a significant business opportunity. 
• The availability of biodiversity data and metrics to support a nature-positive transition is rapidly expanding, but the challenges faced by companies on biodiversity monitoring and reporting remain. 
  
• By enabling real-time monitoring and predictive modelling, digital technologies such as digital twins can help companies comply with emerging disclosure requirements on biodiversity and integrate nature in business models. 
  
• For sectors that have a large impact on biodiversity, digital twins offer the opportunity to minimise impacts while simultaneously improving operational efficiency and supporting the implementation of nature-positive practices.
• Companies should deploy digital twins as part of a broader journey towards greater biodiversity maturity. To ensure that digital twins add real value to their operations and reporting efforts, companies should embed them within an overarching biodiversity strategy:
  •  understand the most important nature-related impacts, dependencies and risks in your operations;
  • consolidate available data from existing data sources and identify possible data gaps;
  • identify the sites or assets where digital twin solutions could be most urgent or useful;
  • embed the data generated through digital twins in compliance efforts, strategic decision-making and disclosure initiatives;
  • Scale up digital twins to cover your entire operations and continuously use the generated insights to inform your targets, strategies and transition plans. 

Biodiversity a is rapidly evolving field for businesses. Depending on your starting point, as well as on the expectations of your stakeholders, progressing to a higher level of maturity in your consideration of biodiversity issues may entail taking steps to: 

• Enhance awareness and understanding of nature-related topics among your internal stakeholders. 
• Understand what regulators and other stakeholders expect you to report on, and how you can articulate your biodiversity performance clearly. 
• Benchmark your biodiversity performance against that of your competitors or assess the level of maturity among your suppliers. 
• Understand how biodiversity relates to other topics analysed as part of your double materiality assessment. 
• Undertake a detailed assessment of your biodiversity impacts, dependencies and risks, and identify relevant content and data requirements. 
• Align your biodiversity reporting with key mandatory and voluntary frameworks (e.g. CSRD, TNFD, GRI, SBTN). 
• Set science-based targets for nature and develop a biodiversity strategy and/or transition plan. 

KPMG can offer in-depth subject matter knowledge and assurance and reporting expertise to help you integrate nature-related topics in your strategies, business models, operations and reporting efforts. We collaborate with providers of cutting-edge data solutions, to ensure that you can benefit from the best-available tools and evidence when taking action on biodiversity and other sustainability topics. 

With their joint offering, KPMG Sweden and R-evolution can also guide you in a step-by-step journey to deploy Green Cubes Digital Reality in your operations, starting with your most critical sites and ensuring that digital twins are seamlessly embedded in your overarching sustainability strategy. 

Dario Piselli
Senior Manager, Biodiversity and Pollution, Sustainability Advisory, KPMG in Sweden 
+46 73 6991709
dario.piselli@kpmg.se