Three Leading Japanese Nature-Tech Innovators Unite to Enable Continuous Natural Capital Management

Integrating Nature Footprint, Environmental DNA, and Natural Capital Management Platforms to Support Nature-Positive Initiatives by Corporations and Local Governments

Biome Inc. (Headquarters: Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture; CEO: Shogo Fujiiki; hereinafter "Biome") is jointly collaborating with Professor Norihiro Izutsubo of the School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University, and Professor Norio Kondo of the Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, to develop a new framework for natural capital management tailored to corporations and local governments. This framework integrates the environmental impact assessment method "LIME3," the environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring network "ANEMONE," and the natural capital management platform "BiomeBoard," which leverages biodiversity data collected through citizen science.

This initiative aims to interconnect three key elements: assessing environmental impacts, observing on-site biodiversity conditions, and generating data through community and citizen participation. The goal is to identify priority sites and regions, develop conservation and restoration strategies, communicate results internally and externally, respond to disclosure requirements, and establish continuous monitoring. This approach seeks to transform natural capital management from one-time assessments and disclosures into an ongoing, practical process that continuously improves business operations and regional policies. Concurrently, the initiative is launching a call for pilot participants, inviting corporations and local governments to join its demonstration projects.

Background: Advancing Natural Capital Management from One-Time Assessment to Continuous Practice

In recent years, with the release of frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), corporations are increasingly required—not only to address climate change—but also to understand and disclose their impacts on and dependencies on nature and biodiversity. Similarly, local governments are expected to continuously monitor the state of local ecosystems and integrate this understanding into policy and action. This includes developing and implementing regional biodiversity strategies, utilizing nature-coexistence sites, advancing local conservation and restoration, and building consensus around development and land-use decisions.

However, current approaches to natural capital by corporations and local governments often remain limited to isolated assessments, surveys, plans, and disclosures. Systems that continuously monitor how business activities and regional challenges affect nature, and how biodiversity is actually faring on the ground—and then use this information to drive improvements—are still in their early stages of development.

One key reason is the historical separation between two types of data: impact assessments that measure "how much pressure is being exerted," and on-site observations that reveal "what species are actually present." This initiative aims to bridge these two domains using Japanese-developed technologies, connecting evaluation, observation, citizen participation, strategy development, disclosure, communication, and continuous monitoring into a single, integrated workflow. The goal is to evolve natural capital management into a continuous, embedded practice within corporate operations and regional governance.

Three Leading Japanese Technologies in Their Respective Fields

This initiative brings together three key technologies responsible for assessment, observation, and integrated management.

Assessment: LIME3 (Professor Norihiro Izutsubo, School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University)

LIME3 (Life cycle Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint modeling) is a Japanese-developed Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methodology created by Professor Norihiro Izutsubo and his team. It evaluates the ultimate damages caused by environmental loads across the entire lifecycle of products and services—impacts on human health, biodiversity, and social assets—using a "damage-oriented (endpoint-based)" approach. This allows multiple environmental impacts to be assessed and compared in an integrated manner. Aligned with international LCA standards, LIME3 serves as an evaluation framework to pinpoint where impacts are concentrated within business operations, even across global supply chains. Currently, efforts are underway to further develop a "Nature Footprint" assessment method based on LIME3 to specifically capture impacts on biodiversity.

Observation: ANEMONE (Professor Norio Kondo, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University)

ANEMONE (All Nippon eDNA Monitoring Network) is a biodiversity observation network led by Professor Norio Kondo, utilizing environmental DNA (eDNA). By analyzing DNA contained in environmental samples such as water, ANEMONE can detect clues about species present in an area—even from just a bucket of water. With cooperation from universities, research institutions, government agencies, and citizen volunteers across Japan, ANEMONE conducts continuous, large-scale monitoring using standardized methods. The collected and organized data are publicly available through the open database "ANEMONE DB." This provides a scientifically robust observational foundation for biodiversity conditions that are difficult to capture through traditional visual surveys alone. Within Tohoku University’s Nature-Positive Society Realization Hub (NP Hub), ANEMONE is recognized as a key research infrastructure linking nature and society.

Integrated Management: BiomeBoard (Biome Inc.)

BiomeBoard is a platform that organizes and visualizes nature-related information for corporate sites, procurement locations, development areas, and municipal target regions. It supports evaluation, decision-making, and continuous monitoring related to natural capital and biodiversity. By leveraging citizen-participatory biodiversity data accumulated by Biome through citizen science, BiomeBoard connects impact assessments from LIME3 and observational data from ANEMONE. This integration enables the identification of priority locations, development of conservation and restoration strategies, disclosure and communication, and ongoing monitoring. The platform incorporates mechanisms that engage diverse stakeholders—including employees and local residents—connecting on-the-ground data to actions by corporations, local governments, and communities.

Connecting Assessment and Observation to Advance Natural Capital Management as Continuous Practice

Through this three-party collaboration, the strengths of each partner are combined to provide ongoing support for corporate natural capital management. The initiative integrates the assessment perspective of LIME3—which estimates nature footprints from business activity data to identify high-impact areas—with the observational perspective of ANEMONE—which verifies on-site biodiversity conditions using eDNA—and Biome’s expertise in utilizing citizen science data. In this framework, assessments guide where observations should take place, while observations validate the accuracy of assessments. This mutual reinforcement enables clearer identification of "where and what to act on." BiomeBoard serves as the foundational platform that overlays these assessments and observations at the level of sites, procurement areas, and regions, enabling integrated management of goals, strategies, and monitoring.

Insights gained are channeled into conservation and restoration actions, value chain-wide implementation, and disclosures, with outcomes feeding back into future initiatives. By repeating this cycle, natural capital management evolves from a one-time disclosure exercise into a continuous management process that informs business decisions.

This collaboration also emphasizes the importance of involving research institutions, corporations, and citizens/local communities in shaping nature-related information from their respective perspectives. Observational data stored in a publicly accessible and shareable format not only support corporate initiatives but can also enhance regional natural information and contribute to increasing regional value. All these technologies have been cultivated in Japan, and the three partners aim to accumulate implementations combining them to establish a Japanese standard for nature-positive initiatives.