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NatureAlign

An app for financial institutions, to align financial flows with nature positive outcomes.

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Welcome to NatureAlign

NatureAlign is a suite of analytical modules developed by NatureFinance to support stakeholders within the financial system in aligning their financial flows with nature positive outcomes.  

The first module of NatureAlign is a free web app for private financial institutions. The app is being released as a beta version as it is still being developed and improved, with further steps and features on the way. It uses existing biophysical, spatial and financial datasets to provide financial institutions with a baseline analysis of their investments and loans with respect to nature. Its main aim is to arm institutions that fuel economies with the knowledge and tools to account for their reliance and impacts on nature.   

This is because financial institutions are key to the nature transition. With nearly $7 trillion, or about 7% of global GDP, invested each year in activities that harm nature, there is an urgent need for financial institutions to shift finance towards activities and sectors that protect, manage and restore the natural world. 

Demands on financial institutions to demonstrate the alignment of financial flows with net zero and nature positive outcomes are growing, driven by the need to meet climate and nature goals. For nature, this is highlighted by regulations such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), global frameworks such as the Biodiversity Plan (the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework), and recommendations from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

Sign up to use NatureAlign for free and progress your nature journey today


 

Who should use NatureAlign?

The first module of NatureAlign is designed for private financial institutions including asset managers, asset owners and commercial banks. NatureAlign helps you kick-start your nature alignment journey by understanding your current position with respect to nature – from interfaces with nature and sensitive locations to exposure to nature-related dependencies and impacts. This is an essential step to take further action to channel financial flows away from activities that harm nature and towards activities that deliver nature positive outcomes. The app can be particularly helpful for professionals with the sustainability, risk management and investment management functions in these institutions. With time, we hope to also make the app and future modules of NatureAlign available to governments and development finance institutions.

How does NatureAlign work, and what does it show?

As the first module within NatureAlign, the app combines data you provide on your investments or loans with spatial datasets and sector-level information to produce baseline analysis, statistics, and visualisations. These insights help you build a portfolio-level overview of key interfaces with nature, exposure to sensitive locations including the extent of water risk and the presence of critical natural assets, and the extent of ecosystem protection in the countries where your investments or loans are located. The app also assesses nature-related dependencies and impacts at a sector level. Finally, it estimates metrics recommended by the TNFD for financial institutions. The analytics are intended to ultimately support you with reporting, risk assessments and strategic planning, including transition planning and investment planning. The app is especially helpful at the start of your nature journey, with links to the CSRD’s requirements and the TNFD’s framework.

 

FAQs

  • The app complements existing tools that are available to support you on your nature journey. It has several unique characteristics. It is freely accessible, allowing you to use it without barriers. It aligns with components of the TNFD’s LEAP (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare) framework and has links to the CSRD’s requirements. It integrates a diverse and unique combination of biophysical datasets, providing you portfolio-level insights across several topics including biocomplexity, water risk, critical natural assets and others. By drawing on a universe of up to 2,000 publicly listed companies, the app can enhance your data accuracy. The app can also adapt to varying levels of data quality, granularity and completeness. In doing so, it can provide you with outputs at different levels of granularity, such as country and watershed-level spatial analysis. Finally, it offers you downloadable results that you can utilise in your own internal analysis.

  • NatureAlign is being developed through an iterative design process, which so far has involved engaging with over 15 financial institutions across different business lines and locations to test its structure and concept. Engagement with financial institutions continued as the web app, the first module of NatureAlign, was being developed. As part of this process, NatureFinance undertook two end-to-end analytical pilots of the app with a bank and an asset manager. Feedback from this engagement led to enhancements in the app’s functionality, processing efficiency, and user interface.

    The app, which is currently in beta mode, will continue to evolve based on user feedback and plans for further modules and features in the future. By launching the first module of NatureAlign as a beta app, we want it to continue being tested by financial institutions. We invite you to test it and share feedback by contacting us at appsupport@naturefinance.net. We may also undertake selected hands-on pilots with specific financial institutions, providing assistance as they use and test the app.

  • The app offers several options to help you manage sensitive data about your investments or loans securely. You can anonymise company names, use percentage values instead of absolute investment amounts for your financial exposure, or redact specific information entirely. Your data will be stored on a secure AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud platform, following industry best practices for data privacy and encryption. You have full control over your data, with the ability to amend, update, or delete it at any time. Before deleting your data, you can download and save a copy of your results. For more details, please refer to the app’s Privacy Policy which is available when you log into the app.

  • The NatureAlign web app is the first module in a broader suite that NatureFinance hopes to develop to support private financial institutions, and other stakeholders such as governments and development finance institutions, to align financial flows with nature-positive outcomes. Future modules could focus on providing tools or frameworks to assess alignment with the GBF, offer structured recommendations for setting nature-related targets, and allow organisations to explore the impact of modifying their investments on nature. The next module of NatureAlign which we plan to develop for private financial institutions, will aim to assess its alignment with the GBF, building on first assessing the organisation’s baseline using the Module 1 web app.

  • Go to app.naturefinance.net to sign up and start using the app. This includes exploring its functionality and getting access to further information like more FAQs as well as the app’s user guide and methodology document. Please reach  out to appsupport@naturefinance.net. if you encounter any issues. For media advisory, read here. 

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