In the dynamic realm of sustainability reporting, two regulatory forces are shaping the future: TNFD and CSRD.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) provides a framework for integrating nature into financial decision-making by encouraging organisations to disclose their nature-related impacts, risks, dependencies, and opportunities.
Meanwhile, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is the European Union’s new legislation mandating detailed ESG disclosures, including biodiversity, under the double materiality lens: how a company affects nature, and how nature affects the company.
As biodiversity loss accelerates and environmental risk ranks among top business concerns, accurate and actionable data is essential. With over 55% of global GDP reliant on nature, nature-related financial disclosures are fast becoming a regulatory necessity.
This guide unpacks the TNFD and CSRD frameworks, outlines their goals and reporting requirements, and demonstrates how Gentian’s satellite-powered platform, True Sage, supports companies in achieving accurate, reliable, and efficient compliance.
Jump to Section:
- Understanding the TNFD Framework: Disclosing Nature-Related Risks and Opportunities
- CSRD Compliance: A New Era in European Sustainability Reporting
- Rely on Gentian for CRSD Compliance and TNFD Disclosures
Understanding the TNFD Framework: Disclosing Nature-Related Risks and Opportunities
What is the TNFD Framework?
The TNFD is a science-led, market-driven initiative that helps organisations evaluate and disclose nature-related risks.
It is modelled on the successful TCFD framework for climate risk but expands its focus to encompass ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural capital.
TNFD promotes strategic integration of environmental data into governance, strategy, risk management, and reporting practices.
TNFD’s four disclosure pillars include:
- Governance: How boards oversee nature-related issues.
- Strategy: How nature considerations factor into strategy and financial planning.
- Risk & Impact Management: How they identify and manage nature-related risks and impacts
- Metrics & Targets: What metrics and targets they use to track performance.
Although currently voluntary, TNFD is gaining momentum. Leading institutions expect to begin reporting in FY2024-25, and several governments, including the UK, are considering incorporating TNFD into legislation, mirroring the TCFD’s transition from voluntary to mandated, demonstrating a clear trend toward required nature-related reporting.
Implementing TNFD prepares companies for future compliance and improves their risk management capabilities. The framework encourages organisations to assess:
- Dependencies on natural assets (e.g., water, pollination, healthy soils).
- Impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity.
- Location-specific environmental risks (e.g., operations near protected habitats).
This structured approach enables early identification of vulnerabilities and opportunities for positive environmental action.
However, nature-related disclosures require granular, spatially explicit data that is not easily captured through traditional reporting methods. TNFD’s LEAP approach (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare) depends on access to precise geospatial data across direct operations and value chains.
How Gentian’s Precision Data Supports TNFD Disclosure
Gentian’s True Sage leverages satellite imagery and AI to classify habitats and monitor biodiversity with high accuracy. Using imagery with up to 50 cm resolution, the platform remotely identifies habitat types using internationally recognised frameworks such as IUCN, UKHab, and EUNIS. This ensures consistent data across all locations and alignment with TNFD disclosure requirements.
True Sage supports each TNFD pillar:
- Risk & Impact Management: Identifies sensitive sites, endangered species, and nearby protected areas.
- Strategy: Uncovers opportunities for ecosystem restoration, offsets, and nature-positive investments.
- Metrics & Targets: Delivers standardised, repeatable metrics for habitat extent, condition, and change over time.
- Governance: Generates clear, transparent dashboards and reports for stakeholder communication and board oversight.
With its scalable capability, Gentian simplifies TNFD reporting across global portfolios. Automated assessments and GIS-ready outputs accelerate reporting timelines while enhancing credibility.
CSRD Compliance: A New Era in European Sustainability Reporting
What is the CSRD?
The CSRD is the European Union’s binding sustainability reporting regulation, effective from 2023. It vastly expands the scope and depth of reporting required under its predecessor, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). It will eventually apply to over 50,000 companies worldwide, including non-EU entities with substantial EU operations.
CSRD requires companies to report on:
- Impact Materiality: How operations affect nature and society.
- Financial Materiality: How environmental and social issues influence the company’s financial performance.
This double materiality lens aligns closely with TNFD principles and necessitates structured, auditable data collection.
CSRD’s ESG Reporting Requirements
Guided by the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), CSRD mandates disclosures across multiple ESG dimensions. Environmental requirements include climate change, pollution, water, marine resources, and notably, biodiversity and ecosystems (ESRS E4). Companies must report on:
- Biodiversity policies and governance.
- Impact on protected areas and endangered species.
- Restoration efforts and changes in ecosystem condition.
Companies are also expected to show how biodiversity considerations are integrated into their overall strategy, business model, and value creation plan. Disclosures must demonstrate how governance bodies oversee biodiversity-related risks and performance.
Reports must be externally assured and machine-readable, increasing the pressure for high-quality, verifiable data. Biodiversity, which often lacks baseline data, is particularly challenging.
Key CSRD Reporting Deadlines
CSRD implementation will roll out in phases:
- 2024 (reports due 2025): Large public-interest entities already reporting under NFRD.
- 2025 (reports due 2026): Other large companies meeting two of the following: €40M turnover, €20M assets, or 250+ employees.
- 2026 (reports due 2027): Listed SMEs, with an opt-out grace period until 2028.
- 2028 (reports due 2029): Non-EU companies with €150M+ in EU revenues and an EU branch or subsidiary.
With these deadlines approaching, organisations must act now to establish compliant reporting infrastructure and ensure internal alignment across sustainability, finance, risk, and governance functions.
Meeting CSRD Requirements with Gentian’s Biodiversity Data
How Gentian Supports CSRD Biodiversity Reporting
Gentian’s True Sage is purpose-built to meet biodiversity-related ESG requirements. It delivers audit-ready biodiversity metrics, formatted for direct use in CSRD reports. Satellite-derived habitat maps allow companies to:
- Quantify and track biodiversity impacts across all sites.
- Monitor changes in habitat quality and extent over time.
- Identify risks (e.g., proximity to protected areas or sensitive species).
These outputs support both financial and impact materiality disclosures and align with ESRS E4 biodiversity standards.
Biodiversity KPIs for Reporting
Gentian’s outputs can be directly adopted as ESG Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as:
- Hectares of each habitat type managed or restored.
- Habitat condition scores and net change from baseline.
- Risk exposure indicators (e.g., % of operations near protected areas).
These KPIs allow companies to set science-based targets and measure progress toward nature-positive goals over time. Integrating these indicators into sustainability dashboards also helps drive internal accountability and inform executive-level decision-making.
Seamless Integration and Automation
True Sage delivers spatial data, visual maps, and structured reports in multiple formats, including GIS and APIs for integration into ESG systems or business intelligence dashboards. This automation reduces time spent on data wrangling and eliminates manual inconsistencies. The ability to generate both high-level summaries and detailed site-specific analyses makes it suitable for both group-level reporting and operational management.
Gentian’s tools integrate seamlessly into existing sustainability reporting workflows, helping companies align reporting across departments and streamline disclosures. Whether for corporate sustainability reports, investor communications, or regulatory submissions, Gentian enables consistent and defensible data delivery.
Continuous Monitoring for Strategic Decision-Making
CSRD requires annual updates and forward-looking planning. Gentian enables continuous biodiversity monitoring across entire portfolios. By assessing changes year-over-year, companies can demonstrate improvement, fulfil restoration targets, or address declining habitat quality proactively.
These insights also feed into broader sustainability strategies. Early detection of risks can inform mitigation, while successful restoration can be linked to biodiversity credits or other sustainability-linked incentives. Gentian transforms compliance reporting into a valuable input for ESG planning and resource allocation.
Gentian’s data supports long-term adaptive planning, helping companies create dynamic biodiversity management strategies that evolve with new challenges, data, and stakeholder expectations.
Rely on Gentian for CRSD Compliance and TNFD Disclosure
Scientific Credibility and Compliance Alignment
All Gentian data is underpinned by global biodiversity standards, including IUCN, UKHab, and EUNIS. Our methodologies are transparent, robust, and scientifically validated. This ensures your disclosures meet the high expectations of regulators, auditors, and investors.
Scalable and Reliable Assessments
Gentian enables organisations to assess multiple sites simultaneously using satellite data, providing consistent, comparable biodiversity insights at scale. Whether you’re managing five locations or five hundred, the methodology remains consistent. This scalability is ideal for multinational corporations seeking harmonised disclosures across jurisdictions.
Trusted by ESG Leaders
Gentian partners with forward-thinking organisations across finance, infrastructure, real estate, and more. Our platform is designed for non-specialists as well as technical users, making it easy for sustainability teams, analysts, and executives to interpret and act on nature-related data.
We also offer expert support and guidance on integrating biodiversity data into your wider ESG reporting strategy, ensuring your disclosures are not only compliant but strategically aligned with long-term business goals.
Turning Compliance into Strategy
The TNFD and CSRD frameworks signal a paradigm shift in how nature is valued and reported in the corporate world. For companies seeking to lead in sustainability and unlock new financing channels, robust biodiversity data is no longer optional.
Gentian’s True Sage platform equips organisations to meet these mandates with confidence, speed, and scientific rigour. By simplifying complex disclosures and offering repeatable metrics, Gentian transforms biodiversity reporting from a burden into a strategic advantage.
Contact us via the form below to explore how True Sage can streamline your reporting, support nature-positive strategies, and drive measurable ESG performance.
