The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has announced the introduction of “ISO 17298: Biodiversity for organisations,” a new standard designed to assist entities in evaluating and addressing their biodiversity impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities.
According to ISO, this initiative emerges in the context of escalating regulatory, reputational, and operational demands due to increasing biodiversity risks, with $44 trillion, or over half of the global GDP, being moderately or highly reliant on nature.
As these pressures mount and companies incorporate biodiversity considerations into their organisational strategies and operations, the absence of a unified biodiversity framework has led to fragmented approaches and increased confusion as nature-related risks and expectations grow. Noelia Garcia Nebra, ISO Head of Sustainability and Partnerships, highlighted that this new standard aims to fill this gap by providing a structured roadmap that enables organisations to evaluate biodiversity-related impacts and effectively integrate these into their strategies.
Garcia Nebra further emphasised that the standard embeds biodiversity into core governance and risk management practices, beyond just sustainability reporting, ensuring alignment with global expectations and organisational operations.
ISO stated that the new standard will assist organisations in evaluating how their activities interact with biodiversity, prioritising actions at both operational and landscape levels, setting measurable objectives, monitoring progress, and incorporating biodiversity into broader sustainability efforts.
The development of ISO’s new biodiversity standard was led by a technical committee comprising experts from over 60 countries, with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) serving as a liaison organisation. TNFD Technical Director, Emily McKenzie, expressed satisfaction in supporting ISO with this development, building on the TNFD LEAP (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, and Prepare) approach. She noted that ISO 17298 will help harmonise concepts, definitions, and approaches internationally, aiding organisations in considering nature-related issues within their strategy and operations.
In addition to the TNFD, ISO indicated that the new standard is designed to be compatible with other frameworks and initiatives, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as ISO standards 14001 Environmental management systems and 26000 social responsibility. It also contributes directly to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
ISO Director of Standardization, Marco Rossi, stated that ISO 17298 is suitable for a diverse range of users, from SMEs and large corporations to public institutions and cities. It supports the generation of credible, comparable biodiversity data that can inform investment decisions, improve disclosure, and facilitate access to nature-positive economy and biodiversity-linked markets.
ISO has also indicated that this release marks the start of a broader suite of biodiversity standards, with future work focusing on areas including standards on vocabulary, biodiversity net gain, and characterisation of products based on native species, among others.
To access the new ISO biodiversity standard, [click here](https://www.iso.org/standard/17298#lifecycle).
