Setting SMART biodiversity objectives that drive results
You've assessed your impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities. You've engaged stakeholders and understand their expectations. You've internalised the mitigation hierarchy. Now comes the pivotal step: translating all this analysis into concrete objectives that will guide your biodiversity action plan.
ISO 17298 requires organisations to set objectives that foster biodiversity, reflect their ambitions and form the basis of their biodiversity action plan. But not just any objectives will do – they must be specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented and time-limited. Done well, objective-setting transforms good intentions into accountable commitments that drive genuine biodiversity outcomes.
Defining your ambition level
Before setting specific objectives, clarify your overall ambition. The standard requires defining your ambition regarding the biodiversity action plan, building on your organisation's vision, mission and values. This ambition should reflect your priority impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities while being realistic about your capabilities.
ISO 17298 suggests five general ambition levels, from lowest to highest:
Compliance focuses on meeting the most urgent stakeholder expectations and regulatory requirements. This baseline ambition keeps you legally operational and addresses the most critical stakeholder concerns but doesn't pursue leadership.
Smart-to-do targets customer expectations and operational cost reduction. This pragmatic ambition pursues biodiversity actions that also deliver business benefits through efficiency, risk reduction or market advantage.
Complete change involves fundamental transformation of product lines, operating methodsor resource management. This ambitious level recognises that incremental improvements are insufficient and meaningful biodiversity performance requires business model evolution.
Long-term viability proactively addresses future risks and opportunities. This forward-thinking ambition positions the organisation for resilience as biodiversity loss intensifies and regulation, market expectations and ecosystem changes accelerate.
Create value aims to generate benefits for society beyond business economics. This leadership ambition treats biodiversity recovery as a core purpose, not just a constraint, actively creating positive outcomes that benefit ecosystems and communities.
Your ambition level should be adequate to your size, turnover, number of sites and position in the value chain. A small local business and a multinational corporation face different capabilities and expectations. Be honest about where you're starting and ambitious about where you're heading.
Fundamental vs. means objectives
ISO 17298 distinguishes between two objective types that organisations should understand and balance:
Fundamental objectives reflect desired results on the state of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These are the environmental outcomes you're ultimately trying to achieve. Examples include increasing pollinator populations in agricultural areas, restoring native forest cover, recovering threatened species populations, improving water quality in affected watersheds orregenerating degraded soil ecosystems.
Means objectives reflect actions for achieving results. These are the changes in your operations, products, governance or practices that drive fundamental outcomes. Examples include eliminating harmful pesticides from agricultural supply chains, implementing regenerative farming practices, establishing wildlife corridors across owned land, transitioning to circular production models or redesigning products to use sustainably sourced materials.
Both types matter. Fundamental objectives keep you focused on actual biodiversity outcomes rather than just activity. Means objectives define the concrete actions under your control that will deliver those outcomes. Strong biodiversity approaches include both, with clear connection between means and fundamental objectives.
The SMART criteria
ISO 17298 requires all objectives to be SMART – an acronym that ensures objectives are well-designed to drive results:
Specific objectives are clearly defined so everyone involved has the same understanding. "Improve biodiversity" is vague. "Increase native plant species richness on owned land from 30 to 50 species" is specific. Specificity prevents different interpretations and enables focused action.
Measurable objectives can be defined against a standard scale – numbers, percentages, fractions or binary states. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it or verify achievement. Measurable objectives enable tracking progress and demonstrating results.
Achievable objectives are practical and appropriate within your context and resources. Overly ambitious objectives set up failure and demotivate teams. Insufficiently ambitious objectives waste opportunities. Achievable objectives stretch capabilities while remaining credible given political, social and financial realities.
Results-oriented objectives represent necessary changes in driver reduction or other key expected outcomes. They focus on what will be different, not just what you'll do. Results orientation keeps attention on impact rather than activity.
Time-limited objectives specify when they'll be achieved. Timeframes should reflect ecosystem dynamics – biodiversity recovery often takes years or decades – while providing accountability and enabling progress tracking. Typical timeframes range from one to ten years, often with interim milestones.
Additional essential criteria
Beyond SMART, ISO 17298 adds several critical requirements:
Objectives must be in line with the mitigation hierarchy, prioritising avoidance and minimisation over restoration and offsetting. An objective to offset impacts without demonstrating avoidance efforts contradicts the hierarchy.
They must be proportionate to biodiversity impacts, dependencies, risks, opportunities and stakeholder expectations. Organisations with severe impacts or high dependencies need more ambitious objectives than those with minimal biodiversity interactions.
They must be compatible with core business strategy. Objectives that contradict business direction won't survive resource allocation decisions. Integration with strategy ensures biodiversity gets meaningful attention and resources.
They must be tracked with systems to monitor progress toward achievement. Tracking enables adaptive management and accountability.
They must be communicated to relevant internal and external stakeholders. Communication creates accountability and enables stakeholder support.
They must be updated when necessary as circumstances change, science advances or progress exceeds expectations.
Covering the right ground
The standard notes that means objectives can cover various aspects of your organisation:
Business model objectives might include transitioning from linear to circular models, shifting from products causing biodiversity harm to nature-positive alternatives or developing new revenue streams from ecosystem service restoration.
Governance objectives might include board oversight of biodiversity risks, executive compensation linked to biodiversity performance or stakeholder representation in biodiversity decision-making.
Organisation and operations objectives might include integrating biodiversity criteria into procurement, training staff on biodiversity-friendly practices or establishing dedicated biodiversity roles and resources.
Site management objectives might include habitat restoration on owned land, green infrastructure implementation or invasive species removal.
Product offering objectives might include reformulating products to eliminate harmful ingredients, sourcing from certified sustainable sources or developing products that actively support biodiversity.
Fundamental objectives often focus on species conservation, ecosystem restoration and ecosystem service regeneration – the actual environmental outcomes these organisational changes are meant to deliver.
Setting objectives in practice
Start with your priority impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities identified through assessment. For each priority issue, define what success looks like. If you've identified pesticide use as a material impact, what would constituted adequate response? Eliminating the most harmful pesticides? Reducing total pesticide use by 50%? Transitioning entire supply chains to organic or regenerative agriculture?
Consult stakeholders on appropriate ambition levels. What do scientists say is needed? What do affected communities consider adequate? What do investors expect? What do regulations require? Balancing these expectations with your capabilities produces objectives that are both ambitious and achievable.
Ensure objectives cascade appropriately. Strategic organisational objectives should break down into operational site-level objectives and individual performance objectives. This cascade ensures everyone understands their role in achieving biodiversity outcomes.
From objectives to action
Well-crafted objectives provide the framework for your biodiversity action plan, which Article 8 will explore. They translate abstract commitment to biodiversity into concrete, measurable targets that drive action, enable accountability and ultimately deliver the biodiversity outcomes that both nature and business need.
Document your objectives clearly, including the rationale for each, the baseline they're measured against, the methodology for tracking progress and the timeline for achievement. This documentation creates accountability and enables transparent reporting to stakeholders about your biodiversity ambition and progress toward achieving it. Most importantly, it transforms your biodiversity approach from well-meaning intention into accountable commitment with defined success criteria and timelines for delivery.
