This series explores how investors can integrate nature into decision-making. It provides practical insights and lessons learned from Greenbank’s own assessment journey.
Introducing our new nature research series: Integrating Nature – Pathways for Investors
11 November 2025
Article last updated 11 November 2025.
Today, we are launching the first three papers in the series:
1. The Business Case for Nature: What Investors Need to Know
2. Assessing Nature-related Risk and Opportunity: A Practical Framework for Investors
3. The Assessment Journey: Key Findings and Lessons Learned
“This research builds on our existing work to understand and manage the impact of our investments on nature, including setting nature targets earlier this year and our ongoing work to meet our longstanding commitment to the Finance for Biodiversity pledge.”
Sophie Lawrence, Stewardship and Engagement Lead, Greenbank
The Business Case for Nature: What Investors Need to Know
“Healthy societies, resilient economies and thriving businesses all rely on nature and its biodiversity.”
As investors, we have a key role to play in addressing nature loss as the companies we invest in both depend on and impact nature in a variety of ways through their operations, products and services, both positive and negative. This creates risks and opportunities for the companies we invest in and indirectly, for investors in these companies.
This paper introduces some of the key concepts which are fundamental to our understanding of the business case for nature and explores nature as an investment risk and opportunity.
Assessing Nature-related Risk and Opportunity: A Practical Framework for Investors
“Analysing the exposure to impacts of economic activity on nature and/ or dependencies on nature through investments can be a first step to identify sources of risk and opportunity in an investor’s portfolio and is ultimately important to build long-term resilience into portfolios.”
This paper introduces a practical framework for investors to use to understand their nature-related risks and opportunities, starting by developing a heatmap and then moving to asset tagging. It also explores the current limitations of approaches.
The Assessment Journey: Key Findings and Lessons Learned
In January 2025, Greenbank set three initial nature targets including one focused on assessment, committing to “conduct and publicly disclose an assessment of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities for in-scope investments.”
This paper explores the assessment journey we have followed within Greenbank to date and shares some early findings and learnings from this work.
