ENCORE: the global infrastructure for screening business risks, dependencies and impacts on nature

Sebastian Bekker , Frida Arriaga, Andrea Baquero, Jacob Bedford, Hidde Boom, Sharon Brooks, Martin Bruckner, Alena Cierna, Sebastian Dunnett, Ruth Fletcher, Joe Gosling, Annelisa Grigg, Martin Halle, Michael Harfoot, Matt Jones, Steven King, Katie Leach, Mariana Martinez del Rio, Olaoluwa Matemilola, Damien Mittempergher, Anders Nordheim, Brian O'Connor, Lisa Petrovic, Stephan Pfister, Sarah Pickering, Aime Rankin, Alex Ross, Justine Saunders, Felix Tin, Mark van Oorschot, Arnout van Soesbergen, James Vause, Antonin Vergez, Neil Burgess

Biodiversity and ecosystem services provide the foundation on which the global economy, and by extension all businesses, depend. ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) has established itself as a key reference for business and financial institution assessment of exposure to risk stemming from nature degradation. It has over 18,000 users, has been used in over 15 assessments at national scale by central banks and others and is recommended for use by businesses and financial institutions by leading initiatives such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). ENCORE can also support national decision-makers with screening of nature-related risk exposure, in line with the ambition of Target 15 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

This paper outlines the theory that underpins nature-related assessments. The resulting structure of the ENCORE knowledge base provides information on dependency and impact pathways through which economic activities link to ecosystem components. Our paper is based on the 2024 update to the ENCORE knowledge base that covers 271 economic activities including key value chain links, aligns with the globally recognised International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), and integrates both qualitative and quantitative data to underpin materiality ratings for five ecosystem services and seven pressures. For this update, we systematically reviewed over 1,600 sources from the academic and grey literature (e.g., 24 company sustainability-related reports) and consulted with 78 industry experts to assess over 15,000 links between economic activities, ecosystem services and pressures on nature to provide this enhanced ENCORE knowledge base.

The analysis presented here cements ENCORE’s position as essential infrastructure for businesses, financial institutions, and regulators to screen their exposure to nature-related risk. ENCORE supports actions to include nature in traditional approaches to risk and actions to deliver the global biodiversity agenda.