The Sustainability Imperative

Catherine Drumheller, Matthew Ling, and Laura Lawlor describe an approach for valuing the benefits of nature to ensure investments are made in the most economical and impactful ways. The authors identify six categories of benefits that can be realized from nature-based solutions, and those benefits are associated with indicators and criteria that provide a screening tool for project designers. This tool can be used to develop scores using standard ecosystem accounting principles and other methods to measure impacts on human and nature communities.

Charlie Briggs unifies science-based targets and reporting requirements to show that adopting such targets can satisfy current and pending reporting while allowing companies to use targets to take action, build institutional knowledge and capacity in nature, secure buy-in and funding for future nature-related needs, and enhance stakeholder relationships with credible targets that can be openly communicated. The article uses examples from business and other sectors to show the future-focused benefits of adopting science-based targets that contribute to business resilience.

Enrique Castro-Leon, Katrina Pugh, and Jose Zero take another approach to supporting business resilience. They believe we need a carbon-accounting system that is clear, credible, transparent — and can stretch along supply chains and be compared across businesses. Starting with US generally accepted accounting practices, the authors advocate for an approach based on the accrual method to provide a more accurate picture across time and promote the idea that carbon investments in impermanent solutions like forest planting should be accounted for just like a commodity with a value that changes depending on circumstances.

A net benefit for nature is central to the activities happening at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA, a campus-like setting in a peri-urban landscape. Margaret Waldock, Jonathan Wagar, and David Jeffrey Ringer describe how Duke Farms addressed greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and carbon sequestration using a science-based approach that supported the location’s strategic objectives with smart decision-making and an authentic discussion of trade-offs.

This Advisor introduces the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP), a key industry initiative supporting the European Green Deal. With a structured governance model and ongoing collaboration with the European Commission, the CNDCP drives the data center industry toward climate neutrality by 2030.

In this Advisor, we explore how AI is transforming adaptive reuse decision-making. The Reincarnate project integrates AI tools with traditional scenario methods and participatory workshops to develop 15 circular building reuse scenarios. Leveraging ChatGPT-4 for narrative insights and DALL-E for visualizations, these scenarios enhance early design stages, align stakeholder priorities, and support more informed policy and project decisions.

This Advisor highlights the critical need to align the green and digital transitions, emphasizing that while both will reshape society and the economy, they follow distinct trajectories. To ensure a just and effective twin transition, industry and policymakers must address key challenges, including data fragmentation, overreliance on technology, power imbalances, and policy alignment.

Shannon Ames and Whitney D. Stovall demonstrate how a whole-system approach can transform hydropower by expanding project evaluations beyond reliability and longevity to embrace multiple priorities that deliver additional value. The authors illustrate how, when designed effectively, hydropower can fulfill its renewable energy mandate while also supporting 24/7 demand matching, biodiversity protection and restoration, and positive community impact.