Inside the Process: Developing the Nature Tech Taxonomy with Impact Labs
For centuries, modern societies have treated natural resources as infinite. Now, we are losing nature at an alarming rate: One million species are at risk of extinction, half of the world’s coral reefs have gone, and up to 40% of the world’s land is degraded. We’ve breached six out of nine planetary boundaries, pushing Earth’s systems to their limits.
If we fail to safeguard our natural world, the predicted cost is staggering. Estimates suggest over half of global GDP depends on nature's services, meaning the global economy could lose trillions as the impacts of nature loss and biodiversity decline cascade through systems.
By leveraging technology, we can better value and restore nature, and support the shift from an extractive to a regenerative, nature-positive mindset.
But, what exactly is nature tech? How can we understand and harness its potential to address the urgent challenges in front of us?
This was the focus of our latest NTC Now session. We sat down with Thibauld Berly of Impact Labs Earth to explore why we need a clearer framework for understanding and navigating the diverse solutions of the nature tech ecosystem, and how the Nature Tech Taxonomy seeks to provide that clarity.
What is Nature Tech?
We define nature tech as any solution that enables, accelerates and scales the transition to a nature-positive economy.
These technologies play a critical role in addressing global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and nature-related risk management.
Importantly, nature tech is not limited to hardware or digital tools; it encompasses a broad range of technologies, including social and organizational innovations, processes, and institutions.
Nature tech can be seen as serving four key purposes:
Deployment: Enabling the large-scale implementation of nature-based solutions. For instance, drone technology is used for reforestation efforts.
Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV): Providing tools to track progress, verify outcomes, and generate reliable data for reporting. Examples include satellite monitoring and environmental DNA (eDNA) testing.
Transparency: Facilitating openness and clarity in processes and data, ensuring stakeholders can access and understand information about carbon, nature credits, and environmental impacts.
Connection: Building links between local communities, information sources, and markets to enable effective collaboration and exchange.
What is a ‘Taxonomy’ & why do we need one for nature tech?
A taxonomy is a system of classification used to organize and categorize entities into groups based on shared characteristics, relationships, or rules.
When it comes to mapping a market, a taxonomy would be a structured classification system that organizes solutions, products, or services into hierarchical categories based on shared characteristics.
Here is a real-world example of a taxonomy of enterprise infrastructure, created by the IDC:
A nature tech taxonomy is essential because while the nature tech field is nascent, it is already complex, fragmented and rapidly changing.
As a new and emerging ecosystem, it’s not always easy to know where to look for particular solutions.
A nature tech taxonomy will help provide a shared understanding and language for talking about nature tech, its solutions, and the stakeholders involved.
A taxonomy helps map the landscape of available nature tech technologies - making it easier to identify the right solutions for specific needs, or highlight areas with a critical mass of providers or gaps in the market.
A taxonomy helps structure and systematize the way solutions and stakeholders are categorized and understood.
All this facilitates the mainstream adoption of nature tech by making the field more accessible.
How is the Nature Tech Taxonomy Framework being developed by Impact Labs & the Nature Tech Collective?
The development of the initial Nature Tech Taxonomy Framework has been a collaborative effort aimed at integrating existing, proven frameworks from across the industry.
It presents our initial approach to defining the current solutions market for nature tech.
We are in the early stages, but the final output is imagined as an AI-driven digital search tool, enabling a seamless navigation of the nature tech ecosystem.
Here’s how we’ve approached the process so far:
1. The Tech Lens
This lens allowed us to analyze the market and categorize technologies based on their specific characteristics and applications.
We have currently proposed a categorization, according to Nature Tech Collective’s 5M framework:
For inspiration , we looked at successful frameworks, such as Wildlab’s Inventory and Envisioning's strong visualization approach.
We also drew on our own work at Impact Labs with the Digital for Impact Tech Radar.
2. The Transition Lens
Next, we considered the transitions needed to drive the broader goals of nature-based solutions. This lens focuses on how nature tech can enable critical shifts across industries and sectors.
We took inspiration from the One Earth Solutions Framework, which has already been proven effective in addressing various global challenges.
Our team worked to expand and refine this framework, ensuring it capture the necessary transitions required to accelerate the adoption of nature tech:
3. The Nature Lens
The nature lens considers the specific ecological contexts in which nature tech solutions are applied.
We are still working on this one, but to shape our approach, we’re referencing the One Earth Bio Regions Framework, which links solutions to concrete geographical regions.
We’re also utilizing the TNFD Biomes and Realms framework and the Planetary Boundaries framework to further ground the taxonomy in ecological realities and ensure the technology aligns with global sustainability goals.
How could the Nature Tech Taxonomy be used?
By combining nature, technology, and transition lenses, we hope the Nature Tech Taxonomy will make it easier to identify tailored solutions for a particular need, for a range of stakeholders.
Here are some examples:
For Impact Investment
Clarmondial, an impact investment advisory firm, could use the taxonomy to identify MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) solutions specific to the biomes they invest in, helping to align investments with tailored technologies for each ecosystem.
For Conservation Efforts
Conservation International (CI) could use the taxonomy to generate nature credits for biodiversity conservation projects.
The taxonomy could help them identify solutions aligned with key frameworks and standards, like Verra or the Gold Standard certification, ensuring they meet necessary KPIs to validate their credit schemes.
For Corporate Sustainability
Oji Holdings, a global paper product manufacturer, could leverage the taxonomy to support their structured nature restoration projects. From evaluating baselines to monitoring progress and generating credits, the taxonomy would provide customized solution recommendations for each stage, enhancing options for transparency and reporting.
What’s Next for the Nature Tech Taxonomy Project?
The Nature Tech Taxonomy is designed to be an ongoing, evolving initiative that adapts to new research, feedback, and advancements in the field.
Here’s what’s on the horizon:
Evolving the Nature Lens
We plan to refine the taxonomy over time, particularly the nature lens.For example, the Stockholm Resilience Center recently released 15 new indicators to translate planetary boundaries into business-relevant KPIs—tools that could be integrated into future iterations of the taxonomy.
Incorporating Feedback
The first framework was launched at COP16 for Biodiversity in Cali, where we invited feedback and contributions.A feedback questionnaire remains open, and we encourage those interested to share their insights to help shape the project further. You can also add comments at the end of this post.
Collaboration and Next Steps
We’re committed to keeping this a collaborative effort.If you’d like to get involved or learn more, feel free to reach out to our team. As the project evolves, we’ll be sharing updates on the next steps and opportunities for deeper engagement.
Developing machine-readability
We don’t want the Nature Tech Taxonomy to remain subjective or "fluffy."
Right now, people can interpret it in different ways, but we need to ensure that when databases and large language models (LLMs) are queried - like ChatGPT or Perplexity for region-specific solutions - they return accurate results.
This is a more complex issue that the current taxonomy doesn’t fully address yet.
Join the discussion
The Nature Tech Taxonomy Framework has been shaped by the input of our members at the Nature Tech Collective (NTC) community.
Below is a summary of some early feedback. We invite you to provide your feedback too.
Eduardo Gonzalez, CEO, Greenbox
Looking to the future, the solution here could be useful for identifying gaps and opportunities to leverage existing solutions. However, some areas are currently missing, like the application of edge computing in nature.
Gunthar Hartwig, Product & UX Consultant
We need to determine where the taxonomy will be most applicable. For instance, there's the finance gap, where people need to understand the resources involved.
As a technology consultant, my role is about figuring out how people can piece things together, so having something like this to share as a starting point is really valuable.
Nick Ho, Director of Nature & Carbon, Agerpoint
As a digital MRV provider, it's great to see how these solutions come together. One suggestion I had was that the buckets align with the different stages of the technology stack or value chain. Specifically, we work a lot with ground-truthing and in-situ data collection technologies, which are distinct from remote sensing. People often assume that it's either one or the other, but in reality, it's the combination of both that gives you a complete picture of natural capital.
Steve Mullins, Co-founder, Agrotec Laboratorios Analíticos
In science, we have very specific taxonomies, and we're trying to link them with technology, data acquisition, and data analysis. This is where I hope the taxonomy will play a role in connecting the different sciences. Instead of seeing it as a stack, we view it more as a network—an organic system. The goal is to combine carbon data acquisition with chemistry, satellite imagery, and other components.
Often, we get lost in the specifics of our own silos, making it hard to communicate. For example, when I talk to a satellite expert who’s providing imagery, I focus on nanometers and how they relate to the periodic table, but they’re focused on bandwidth and kernel crunching, using terminology that can cause confusion. Hopefully, this taxonomy can bridge the gap.
We invite you to view the full taxonomy framework & add your comments!
