Biological diversity is essential for our ecosystem and well-being. Businesses are as dependent on biodiversity as humans are – without it, raw materials and supply chains would be heavily disrupted. Biodiversity is highly interconnected with other environmental issues, including deforestation, pollution, climate change, urbanization, and water scarcity.

In 2022, Sika joined the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Forum, a global multi-disciplinary consultative group of institutions with over 1,300 Forum members. With its participation at the TNFD Forum, Sika shares the ambition of the TNFD to develop a risk management framework for organizations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks. This supports a shift in global financial flows toward nature-positive outcomes. Sika supports the TNFD to develop a consistent risk framework to identify, report and manage these risks, as well as nature-related opportunities.

Leap Approach

Sika has used the tools and resources provided by the TNFD to gain an understanding of TNFD’s LEAP (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare) approach:

  • Locate your interface with nature.
  • Evaluate your dependencies and impacts.
  • Assess your risks and opportunities.
  • Prepare to respond and report.

In 2023, in alignment with the guidance for the “Locate” step, Sika performed a first analysis to identify and prioritize potential nature-related issues and main business interfaces focusing only on direct operations. For this purpose, four different tools were used:

  • ENCORE and SBTN Sectoral Materiality were used to screen and investigate the moderate, high, and very high dependencies and impacts on nature for the specialty chemicals sector. By leveraging ENCORE to screen this sector, moderate and high impacts and dependencies were identified for Sika’s direct operations.
  • World Resource Institute (WRI) Aqueduct and IBAT were used to prioritize Sika’s locations of direct operations. Three criteria – baseline water stress, proximity to key biodiversity areas, and proximity to protected areas – were chosen to identify sensi¬tive locations. After screening the company’s sensitive locations accordingly, further work will be needed to identify, quantify, and assess the potentially material nature-related impacts and dependencies at these locations. Subsequently, this materiality assessment can be used to understand the main nature-related risks and opportunities. 


In the coming years, Sika will further investigate the magnitude of impacts and dependencies at these sensitive locations and will leverage the LEAP process to understand the key nature-related risks and opportunities. Sika will further develop a nature-related risk assessment and work towards integrating various elements of the TNFD framework.