Biodiversity and Nature
Biodiversity and Nature
Overview
The availability of natural resources and the provision of ecosystem services are essential to individual and community wellbeing and the success of the global economy. As part of S&P Global’s broader environmental strategy, we are committed to understanding and addressing nature-related impacts of our operations, as well as supporting our customers and others in managing nature-related matters for their own organizations and the wider economy.
This material topic includes our efforts to understand and manage the company’s impacts and dependencies on nature to minimize natural resource consumption and to mitigate other negative environmental impacts of our operations. For information on how S&P Global’s data and technology support analysis and disclosure of nature-related risks and opportunities, see Sustainability Products & Data.
Focus Areas
Identifying and assessing impacts and dependencies in alignment with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Framework.
Advancing progress toward net-zero water2 and waste for our global offices.
2 S&P Global defines net-zero water in accordance with guidelines from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program: “A net zero water building (or campus) completely offsets water use with alternative water plus water returned to the original water source. If the building is not located within the watershed or aquifer of the original water source, then returning water to the original water source will be unlikely. In those cases, a net zero water strategy would depend on alternative water use.”
2023 Highlights
Completed company’s first comprehensive assessment using S&P Global’s and the United Nation Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Nature Risk Profile methodology.
Committed to be an early adopter of TNFD in our annual corporate reporting for FY2024.
Achieved zero-waste-to-landfill for S&P Global’s Ropemaker office in London.
Our Approach
Our approach to nature and biodiversity is integrated within our broader environmental strategy, including our efforts on climate change. This reflects not only our ability to influence these issues through similar channels – e.g., leading the adoption of new disclosures, reducing our operational impacts, and providing data and intelligence solutions for our customers – but also the interconnectedness between climate and the overall health of ecosystems. As a complement to our net-zero goals for climate change, we have established net-zero goals for our other key operational environmental impacts, which we are currently advancing through our real estate sustainability strategy. Also, similar to our close involvement with and adoption of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), we have actively supported the development of TNFD and are taking steps to align our processes and disclosures with its recommendations. In this section, we provide details and highlights of these specific efforts. For more information on our broader environmental strategy, including on oversight of relevant functions and workstreams, see Energy and Climate Change. For information on how we are involving our people in protecting the environment, see Community and Economic Impact.
Our Zero-Impact Goals
Water net-zero for all global offices where we have control of water service
Removal of all single-use plastic from global office operations
Zero-waste for all global offices where we have control of service supplier
Zero-waste for all global offices where service is controlled by landlord
Water net-zero for all global offices where service is controlled by landlord
S&P Global Sustainable1
“Nature and biodiversity is the next horizon for organizations seeking to understand the full scope of their sustainability risks and impact. We are pleased to offer metrics that align with existing frameworks to bring transparency to this key piece of the puzzle.”
Chris Heusler
President
Nature and Biodiversity Risk Assessment
As noted above, S&P Global has been an active supporter of TNFD, a global, market-led initiative with the mission to provide a management and disclosure framework for organizations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks and opportunities. Following publication of the final TNFD recommendations in September 2023, S&P Global registered to be an early adopter and publish our first TNFDaligned disclosures for our financial year 2024 outcomes.
To prepare for this step, in 2023, we commissioned S&P Global Sustainable1 to conduct an initial nature and biodiversity risk assessment of our global operations. Based on the principles of TNFD and using Sustainable1 and UNEP’s Nature Risk Profile methodology, the assessment combined asset-level data with spatial and non-spatial data on elements of nature to identify S&P Global’s impacts and dependencies on nature.
UNEP’s Nature Risk Profile
Source: United Nations Environment Programme (2023). Nature Risk Profile: A Methodology for Profiling Nature Related Dependencies and Impacts.
As a result of the assessment, we introduced two new key performance indicators to help us monitor the interaction of our operations with nature:
- The number of offices that overlap with Protected Areas (areas that are legally safeguarded for their ecological, scientific or cultural value) and Key Biodiversity Areas (areas identified as vital to the global persistence of biodiversity).
- Company Impact Ratio, a normalized composite score based on an analysis of ecosystem value and degradation relative to total land use, with 0 indicating no impact and 1 indicating the highest possible impact.
Although the assessment found that our impact from direct office operations is minimal, we intend to continue to expand our analysis to other parts of our operations, to further inform our future disclosures and explore opportunities to reduce our impact.
“S&P Global’s approach to naturerelated issues, including water and waste, is grounded in taking practical actions to reduce our footprint while continuing to address data gaps to enable more informed decisions for the future.”
Ark Piekarz
Director – Environmental Sustainability
Water
In concert with our efforts to reduce building-related greenhouse gas emissions, our real estate sustainability strategy has been tailored to advance our goal to achieve water net-zero across our global offices by 2030. We are working toward our goals by reducing usage through water efficiency measures, while exploring opportunities for alternative water collection in our offices. At the same time, we plan to support diverse water management projects in local communities.
A longstanding challenge is collecting accurate data on water use, as this is generally not measured for individual tenants in multi-tenant offices. With this in mind, our new green lease clauses and sustainable office fit-out specification include a requirement for the landlord to install and operate sub-metering equipment or else to provide the ability for S&P Global to install its own meter.
We also prioritize the selection of buildings with cutting-edge environmental design. For example, our new leased office in Gurgaon, India, will be in a building with a LEED Zero Water design, which encourages strategies such as rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling to dramatically reduce potable water use for the whole facility.
Waste
S&P Global is taking steps to accelerate our journey to zero-waste, including through our contracts for waste management, real estate leases and sustainable office fit-outs.
Waste contracts
We are retendering all waste contracts in our direct control, to determine if there are regional suppliers offering a zero-waste-to-landfill service with data and certification included. In 2023, this resulted in a transition to a new supplier providing zero-waste-tolandfill services for our Ropemaker office in London.
Green leasing
Our new clauses include requirements for landlords to support our zero-waste goals, including providing a zero-waste-to-landfill option if available in the region. We are also exploring zero-waste-tolandfill options as part of our existing leases. For example, as a result of our engagement, the landlord for our Ahmedabad, India, office confirmed that its waste supplier is currently achieving a landfill diversion rate of 98%.
Sustainable office fit-outs
We are also pursuing measures to improve performance in other areas related to circularity and waste. As part of trialing the fit-out specification for our new Manchester, UK, office, we are working to determine an approach to measure and record all construction waste. There are also standards for the use of materials with low embodied carbon and/or recycled content, to limit the upstream use of energy and virgin materials.
Looking Ahead
Building on our initial nature and biodiversity risk assessment and guided by our climate- and nature-related goals, S&P Global will continue to invest in efforts to understand and manage our nature-related impacts and dependencies, and to reduce associated impacts of our operations. Our plans currently include:
- Issuing our first TNFD-aligned disclosures covering our financial year 2024 outcomes.
- Expanding our analysis of nature and biodiversity risks beyond our office operations.
- Further refining our sustainable office fit-out specification and using it to inform additional capital projects.
- Partnering with nonprofit organizations to restore critical nature or freshwater resources.
See data tables in Appendix.