New ISO 17298 Standard Provides Roadmap for Nature Aligned Corporate Strategy. ESG Broadcast Shares Key Takeaways.
Regulatory Extract:
On October 7, 2025, International Organization for standardization (ISO) launched a new standard on biodiversity ISO 17298: Biodiversity for Organizations – Guidelines and Requirements, during its Annual Meeting 2025 (AM 25) in Kigali, Rwanda. This standard delivered the world’s first globally agreed framework for organizations to address their nature-related risks and opportunities effectively. The standard aimed to help diverse entities assess their impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities related to biodiversity loss.
Global biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, posing catastrophic risks to both ecosystems and the stability of the world’s financial systems. An estimated $44 trillion of global economic value, over half of the entire global GDP, remains highly dependent on nature. Before this release, navigating the complexities of biodiversity and nature action proved difficult for many companies. A common framework was desperately needed to prevent fragmented corporate approaches and growing market confusion.
ISO 17298: Biodiversity for Organizations – Guidelines and Requirements now offers a structured and scalable roadmap for embedding biodiversity into core governance and risk management practices. It specifically guides organizations on how to assess their interactions with biodiversity and how to prioritize their subsequent mitigation actions. The standard was developed by experts from over sixty countries across a dedicated technical committee. The new standard successfully integrated recommendations from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), including their LEAP approach.
ISO Head of Sustainability and Partnerships, Noelia Garcia Nebra, said
“Many organizations see the urgency of biodiversity action, but navigating the path can be complex. Until now, there has been no globally agreed standard for organizations to integrate biodiversity into their strategies and operations, this lack of a common framework has contributed to fragmented approaches and growing confusion as nature-related risks and expectations increase. ISO 17298 addresses this gap by offering a structured roadmap that enables organizations to assess biodiversity-related impacts and consider these effectively in their strategies.”
Major institutions determined that 85% of the S&P Global 1200 companies possessed a significant dependency on natural assets across their direct operations. Furthermore, the World Wildlife Fund estimated that one million distinct animal and plant species currently faced the serious threat of extinction. The framework supports measurable objectives, monitoring progress, and improving overall corporate disclosure. This standardization will improve the quality of comparable biodiversity data for investment decisions.
Strategic significance lies in providing a unified, credible, and internationally recognized language for corporate engagement with biodiversity and nature. It supports the successful implementation of Target 15 within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, aiming to halt nature loss by 2030. The new standard proves perfectly suitable for a wide range of organizations, spanning small businesses, large corporations, and public institutions globally.
