Evaluating nature-risk investment decision tools with Franklin Templeton
As financial institutions grapple with the challenge of measuring nature-related risks, reliable biodiversity assessment tools are becoming essential. The MBI’s review of leading platforms revealed major inconsistencies, highlighting the urgent need for transparent and standardised methodologies.
Research Cluster
Research partners
Franklin Templeton Investments, Jennifer Willets (Franklin Templeton), Monika Dyndo (Franklin Templeton)
Project team
Professor Brendan Wintle, Sam Hickman
Contact
Financial institutions increasingly recognise the importance of evaluating nature-related impacts and dependencies within their investment portfolios. Failing to account for the role of nature poses significant legal risks and threatens long-term returns. With large portfolios often containing thousands of companies, each with highly complex global operations and supply chains, accurately assessing biodiversity impacts poses significant challenges.
What are we interested in?
Resultantly, software has emerged to help financial institutions assess how their corporate activities impact nature. Yet these tools currently lack third-party certification, a standardised methodology, and clear documentation of their theoretical foundation, leading to uncertainty about their reliability.
The goals of our project
To address this uncertainty, Franklin Templeton, a leading global asset manager managing over US$1 trillion in assets, commissioned the MBI to conduct a critical review of existing biodiversity impact assessment tools. We engaged eight prominent biodiversity impact data providers, and evaluated their methodologies, comparing their outputs using a representative sample of S&P 500-listed companies. Our review found substantial variability between the tools’ assessment of our sample. The use of any one tool could lead to substantially different investment decisions compared to another tool. This was further compounded by a general lack of transparency in the methodologies used, making it difficult to independently verify the reasons behind variations in results.
Outcomes/activities
Our findings underscore the urgent need for scientifically robust, transparent, and standardised biodiversity assessment methods, as frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and the Science Based Targets Network are increasingly encouraging such reporting.
Outputs/Media
- Hickman, Samuel and Cantele, Matthew and Balogh, Attila and Dyndo, Monika and Willetts, Jennifer and Morgain, Rachel and Geary, William and Wintle, Brendan, Making money talk nicely: Biodiversity impact assessment for investors (June 05, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5283115 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5283115
- Embedding biodiversity risk assessments requires incentives: Report - FS Sustainability