AECOM TNFD Pilot: Nature risk screening for multiple infrastructure projects across Asia

AECOM case study on piloting the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ LEAP approach.

Global infrastructure consulting firm AECOM took part in Global Canopy’s Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) piloting programme prior to the launch of the TNFD’s Final Recommendations in September 2023.

The TNFD has developed a set of recommendations and guidance for organisations to identify, assess, manage, and – where appropriate – disclose, their evolving nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. Its recommendations and guidance help organisations to integrate nature into decision-making, and ultimately support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes, toward nature-positive outcomes.

Supported by Nature-Based Insights and Global Canopy, AECOM piloted the TNFD’s LEAP approach to identifying and assessing its nature-related issues.

The pilot focused on undertaking a high-level screening of AECOM’s infrastructure projects in South Asia (India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands), South-East Asia (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia), and East Asia (Taiwan, Hong Kong). The infrastructure projects are situated in biomes that span: tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests; tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests; savannah and shrublands; inland wetlands; and mangroves. Among the pilot’s key findings was the potential benefit of a high-level screening process for suitable project sites and appropriate design of project Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) to better ensure biodiversity net gain is achieved.

“The TNFD pilot undertaken in collaboration with Global Canopy has provided an invaluable opportunity to understand how existing environmental assessments, such as Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), compare and contrast with applying the TNFD recommendations on infrastructure development projects. We are keen to utilise the findings and learnings from this pilot to encourage the adoption of the TNFD recommendations within projects, given the way that TNFD approaches assessments in a more holistic way, covering aspects of environmental assessment that most EIAs do not consider, such as landscape scale issues, long term risks, and value chain impacts.”

AECOM’s Biodiversity Lead – Singapore, Ash Welch

ENCORE is among the tools that AECOM used to identify and map supply chain activities associated with infrastructure projects and their associated impacts and dependencies on nature. The free, online tool, jointly developed by Global Canopy, UNEP-FI and UNEP-WCMC, provides organisations with data that enables them to identify the nature-related impacts and dependencies they are exposed to through their business activities. Find out more about ENCORE and how it can support organisations undertaking the TNFD LEAP approach.

After completing the pilot with Global Canopy and Nature-Based Insights, AECOM has gone on to become an Early Adopter of the TNFD.

Read the full AECOM case study, ‘AECOM TNFD Pilot: Nature risk screening for multiple infrastructure projects across Asia’.

Read the case study

Global Canopy is a founding partner of the TNFD, and was an official piloting organisation for the TNFD prior to the launch of the TNFD final recommendations in September 2023. We continue to provide technical expertise to the TNFD, and to build capacity among businesses and financial institutions, preparing them to get started with adopting the TNFD recommendations.

This case study was generously funded by USAID.