Stakeholder engagement guidance (SBTN)

About this Guidance document

Stakeholder engagement is critical for the success of any effort to address nature loss and degradation. SBTN released its Stakeholder Engagement Guidance (V1.0) in 2024 to support companies setting science-based targets with guidance and resources based on best practices to include in the implementation of the target-setting methods.

The guidance focuses on how to engage with and recognize the knowledge and potential contributions of Indigenous peoples, local communities, and other stakeholders who are (directly or indirectly) affected in positive and negative ways by your company’s activities and value chains. Crucially, affected stakeholders include your workforce as well as workers in all other segments of the value chains.

The guidance explains key considerations for engaging with these stakeholders, always recognizing the value of their knowledge and potential contributions in the target-setting process. Implementing the guidance will help you to:

Key outcomes

• Establish targets that are seen as credible by those most directly affected by the outcomes.
• Form partnerships with stakeholders on data collection, analysis, and learning.
• Establish relationships with Indigenous peoples and other affected stakeholders that contribute to building collective action for the achievement of science-based targets.
• Build accountability for outcomes of target setting based on clear and transparent measurement and evaluation.
• Reduce reputational, ethical, legal, operational, or regulatory risks in your nature and climate strategies.

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