The Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) has expanded its guidance on water and land targets, extending coverage to pesticide use and groundwater, according to Ecotextile News. The update also adds new pathways for companies that face gaps in their supply chain data.

The revision matters first for apparel and footwear brands that buy from farms, tanneries and dye houses. Water and land targets under SBTN push buyers to trace impacts back to the raw-material tier, where irrigation, chemical application and land conversion actually occur.

What does the update cover?

Two elements stand out in the announcement:

• Pesticide coverage. The expanded guidance brings pesticide use into scope, which pulls agricultural inputs such as cotton, rubber and viscose feedstocks more directly into target-setting.
• Groundwater coverage. The update extends water targets to groundwater, a resource that textile wet processing and raw-material farming draw on heavily in water-stressed sourcing regions.

Both additions shift the compliance burden upstream. Brands that already validated freshwater targets will need to check whether their baselines capture pesticide and groundwater data.

How does it handle data gaps?

The SBTN has built new pathways for companies that cannot yet trace their supply chains to the site level. This concession acknowledges a structural problem in apparel sourcing: multi-tier visibility below tier two remains partial at most buyers, and nature targets are impossible to set without location-specific data.

The new routes let companies set targets where data exists and improve coverage over time, rather than delay action until full traceability arrives. For sourcing teams, this removes a common justification for postponing nature target-setting.

What should buyers do now?

Sustainability claims tied to SBTN now need tracing to the specific standard and its updated requirements. Compliance teams should map the pesticide and groundwater additions against their existing water stewardship programmes and flag the gaps to suppliers in affected regions.

The decision the news forces: treat the expanded SBTN guidance as a scope change, not a refresh. Buyers with agricultural inputs in their mix must decide this budget cycle whether to fund the supply chain data collection the new targets require.