Only about one in 10 companies listed on South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index discloses information on its dependence and impact on nature, while most firms that do report provide little measurable data, according to a recent study.
Seoul-based thinktank SDG Institute examined disclosures covering the 2024 financial year from all 849 companies listed on the Korea Exchange’s main board. Its assessment used 151 criteria derived from the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), a global initiative that provides guidance for nature-related corporate disclosures.
SDG Institute said its 2025 Analysis of TNFD Disclosures in South Korea was the first comprehensive assessment of nature-related reporting by the country’s listed companies.
Only 91 companies, or 10.7 per cent of the total, disclosed information related to the framework, suggesting that nature reporting among South Korean companies remained at an early stage, the report said.
Even among those companies, the average disclosure rate across the 151 criteria was just 19.6 per cent.
The study found that companies were much more likely to provide qualitative descriptions than data that could be used to measure or verify their performance.
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Nature-related disclosure is not simply about responding to regulation, but about transforming companies so that the value of natural capital is integrated into financial decision-making.
Kim Jong-dae, director, SDG Institute
About 93.4 per cent of the 91 companies described nature-related impacts across their value chains, while 90.1 per cent provided lists of assets or operating locations.
However, the disclosure rate for core indicators measuring nature-related risks and opportunities was only 3.4 per cent. For indicators covering companies’ dependencies and impacts on nature, the rate was 5.8 per cent.
The median disclosure rate for both categories was zero, meaning that more than half of the companies reporting under the TNFD framework provided no core quantitative indicator.
Companies disclosed nature-related action targets at a rate of 13.2 per cent, but often did not report the measurements needed to assess whether those targets were being achieved, the thinktank said.
The gap between stated ambitions and companies’ capacity to measure progress could increase the risk of greenwashing, in which businesses exaggerate the environmental benefits of their activities, it added.
Among the TNFD’s four main reporting areas, disclosures on corporate strategy were the most developed, with a reporting rate of 40.7 per cent.
Disclosures related to risk and impact management ranked second, followed by governance. The rate for metrics and targets was only 7.5 per cent, less than one-fifth of the level recorded for strategy.
The same pattern — strategy followed by risk management, governance, and metrics and targets — appeared among both the most advanced companies and those at an earlier stage of reporting.
The institute said this suggested that weak quantitative reporting was not solely the result of differences in individual companies’ capabilities. It also reflected broader obstacles, including difficulties in obtaining reliable nature-related data and tracing environmental impacts through supply chains.
Reporting levels also differed between industries.
Infrastructure companies, which are often directly exposed to changes in natural environments, recorded an average disclosure rate of 26.1 per cent, the highest among the industries assessed. Food and beverage companies followed at 24.1 per cent.
Consumer goods companies recorded a disclosure rate of 13.4 per cent, despite their dependence on natural resources and raw materials. The report said the lower figure partly reflected the difficulty of tracing complex supply chains.
Across the manufacturing sector, companies tended to focus their risk assessments on facilities and operations under their direct control.
They demonstrated a more limited capacity to track their dependence and impact on nature through the sourcing of raw materials and other stages of production and distribution, the report said.
The SDG Institute recommended that companies establish systems to collect primary nature-related data from their most important suppliers.
It also called on businesses to integrate nature-related risks into board-level decision-making and enterprise risk management systems, and to develop the internal capacity to assess how ecosystem degradation could affect their financial performance.
The government should create standardised nature-related databases at national and industry levels and offer different forms of support according to companies’ readiness to disclose, the institute said.
“Nature-related disclosure is not simply about responding to regulation, but about transforming companies so that the value of natural capital is integrated into financial decision-making,” said Kim Jong-dae, director of the SDG Institute, in the report.
Kim said he hoped the report would help shift corporate responses to the TNFD framework from qualitative declarations towards quantitative disclosure and practical risk management.
