Science Based Targets for Land Version 0.3

This guidance document is intended for use to assist companies in preparing to set land science based targets (SBTs). This guidance is structured to present the Land targets and the conditions and data requirements around setting them upfront. It prioritizes the details that will be most relevant for companies looking to understand the target requirements, data needs, and key exceptions. Those who are interested in more detail and rationale around the targets can find this information in the target-specific annexes, associated technical documents, and supplementary materials listed throughout this guidance.

The Land SBTs relate to halting conversion of natural ecosystems, reducing agricultural land footprint, and landscape-scale engagement to improve the ecosystem integrity of landscapes. These corporate targets related to land are designed to reduce impacts that targets related to climate emissions and removals are not able to address. They also expand the focus beyond forests to include other natural ecosystems linked to agriculture areas. The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) expects these targets to incentivize companies to take regenerative, restorative, and transformative actions in areas beyond their direct value chains.

The first land targets are at a beta stage and are currently being piloted in 2023 by an initial group of target-setting companies. The goal is to capture learnings from this pilot, in order to make optimizations ahead of a version 1 roll-out, aiming for early 2024. Companies outside the Initial Target Validation Group are not able to set SBTs for land using this method until 2024 when the pilot phase of Version 0.3 is complete.