Case study
Generating credible landscape-level claims: Insights from the Sierra de Tapalpa pilot
In 2023, we launched a pilot for our pioneering claims validation mechanism — a process designed to enable companies and organizations to substantiate and showcase their contributions to landscape-level sustainability. This article delves into the mechanism’s innovative features, key insights from several pilot claims in Mexico, and the benefits it offers for businesses and other organizations.
Research increasingly shows that consumers are gravitating toward products that meet high environmental standards. While price remains the most influential factor in consumer decision-making, the research indicates that consumers are adopting a more active interest in the environmental consequences of production. Meanwhile, one study suggests that more than half of consumers globally already have low trust in corporate sustainability claims. If the practice of greenwashing continues to proliferate and receive media exposure, this distrust seems likely to intensify.
Consumers have good reason to be skeptical. Claims about sustainability are everywhere, yet over 50 percent contain “vague, misleading, or unfounded information”. To gain and keep the trust of increasingly scrupulous consumers, companies must demonstrate that both they and their partners operate in ways that are consistent with their stated values.
In recognition of this skepticism, many companies are striving to establish more robust foundations for their claims. As a recent article in Time magazine predicts, “In the long run, as more and more companies invest in sustainability efforts, sustainability metrics are likely to become less of a ‘nice-to-have’ and more of a baseline for entry. Threading the cost and sustainability needle isn’t always easy, but it’s increasingly necessary”.
LandScale has responded to this growing need by creating a new claims mechanism, an innovative tool supporting organizations to make and showcase credible contributions at the landscape level. By providing a structured, data-driven framework, the mechanism helps to ensure that claims are transparent, measurable, and backed by evidence, building trust among organizations, local stakeholders, and consumers.
Understanding LandScale’s pilot claims mechanism
Through its pilot, LandScale developed a policy that allows claims to be made against two types of actions:
1. A landscape investment claim describes investments or actions being taken to drive improvements in sustainability at landscape scale.
2. A landscape impact claim describes how the actions or investments taken have contributed to landscape-level sustainability improvements.
These claims are based on the idea of shared causality – that is, that landscape-level sustainability improvements often involve contributions from multiple stakeholders across the landscape.
All piloted claims were based on a completed and validated LandScale assessment, tied to specific indicators and metrics measured through the assessment. This approach was designed to:
- Foster collaboration among stakeholders operating in the landscape.
- Ensure greater transparency regarding the various efforts being made and their true contribution to broader landscape-level sustainability.
- Encourage increased investment in activities that demonstrate measurable improvements at the landscape level.
Once the process is complete and the claim is validated by LandScale, it can be published on our platform via the relevant landscape profile, spotlighted on our website through case studies and other features, and shared publicly with stakeholders and consumers.
How is LandScale different?
While other claims mechanisms exist, what sets LandScale apart is reflected in our name. We focus on driving large-scale action because we believe that meaningful impact cannot be realized through isolated or fragmented efforts. Our tools are designed with flexibility in mind, recognizing the vast diversity of landscapes in which companies operate. This versatility ensures that our assessments, and the claims tied to them, can be applied effectively across a wide range of contexts. As one participant from the claims pilot commented, “The claims tool is valuable because it helps organizations validate their projects and impacts in any landscape”.
Our mechanism also provides an effective methodology to substantiate and showcase impact. One pilot participant said that, “tools like claims allow these activities to resonate on a local, national, and international level. This visibility is often what organizations seek”. When sustainability actions can be properly substantiated and communicated, they foster stronger trust among companies, local communities, governance bodies, other private organizations, and, ultimately, consumers. This trust is the foundation of the collaboration that we believe is a vital ingredient for achieving enduring impact at the landscape level.
Together, these elements drive progress toward a global understanding of sustainability efforts – a common language – that will be essential for meeting sustainability targets in the coming decades.
Spotlighting investment claims in the Sierra de Tapalpa landscape
The pilot included five claims across three countries: Mexico, Peru, and the Philippines. Here, we will highlight three investment claims made by commercial enterprises in the Sierra de Tapalpa region in Jalisco, Mexico. These investment claims, which describe actions or investments made by specific actors, required each claimant to co-design objectives with stakeholders from the relevant landscape initiative and consult with local stakeholders who may be affected by the planned activities.
Spanning nearly 200,000 hectares, the Sierra de Tapalpa landscape is home to an extraordinary diversity of climates, altitudes, flora, and fauna, much of which is endemic to the area. It contains two distinct protected areas and is largely dominated by both temperate and tropical-subtropical forests, followed by agricultural land.
However, the landscape’s unique balance faces severe threats, including urban development, tourism growth, and agricultural expansion. Although the human population has experienced improvements in quality of life, these gains come with significant trade-offs: increased water consumption, forest fires, rising living costs, the displacement of traditional rural practices, and habitat fragmentation. These changes not only threaten the integrity of the landscape’s ecosystems but also undermine local livelihoods and economic productivity.
Organizations involved in the claims pilot
The following three organizations partnered with us to make the pilot possible in the Sierra de Tapalpa landscape:
Sierra Mazati – forest protection
Sierra Mazati is a real estate project in the mountains of Jalisco, aiming to create a peaceful, eco-innovative community within a protected forest. The project employs a dedicated brigade of forest protectors to manage and preserve thousands of hectares of surrounding forest.
Driscoll’s – reforesting Sierra de Tapalpa
Driscoll’s, the world’s leading fresh berry producer, operates extensively in Mexico. In collaboration with Berrymex, they are contributing to reforestation efforts in the region with a five-year plan focused on tree nursery development.
APEAJAL – ecosystem restoration
APEAJAL, an association of avocado producers, is investing in the cultivation of pine and cypress trees to be planted alongside avocado farms and more broadly across the region’s forests. This, as with the other claims, will accelerate the region’s adoption of sustainable land management practices.
Insights from claims pilot
The claims pilot provided us with valuable insights into the claims-making process, highlighting the value it brought to claimants and other stakeholders, as well as areas for improvement. Some of the feedback from claimants centred on how the pilot had helped them to organize and understand their data. One participant shared that the process had supported them to “systematize the generated information, structure objectives more precisely, and quantify the results and impact in the landscape”, as well as “disseminate good practices, build alliances with key partners to achieve our objectives, [and] focus on relevant zones for implementing strategic reforestation projects to regenerate the environment”. By encouraging meticulous data collection and organization, the pilot made their sustainability efforts both more measurable and more efficient.
Moreover, claimants saw the value of being able to credibly substantiate their efforts which, one said, “is important given the widespread issue of greenwashing today. Many claim sustainability and actions, but often it remains only in discourse, with no follow-up or evidence”. Participants noted the tool’s potential to not only validate their commitments, but also to effectively communicate them to consumers and local stakeholders. As one claimant observed, it helped them to “position our brand as a responsible company”, enhancing credibility and confidence among local communities and their customer base.
The claims conducted also underscored the inherently collaborative nature of these projects. Grupo Mazati coordinates with regional governance structures to support its firefighter brigade, while APEAJAL partners with local actors, producers, and municipalities to maintain its tree nurseries. At the same time, these efforts reinforce and complement each other, highlighting the interconnectedness of different sectors and their shared interest in driving landscape-level change.
One barrier that claimants faced was gathering all the necessary documentation to substantiate the claims. As one noted, “My suggestion would be to standardize the format so the claims mechanism can provide participants with clear guidance, making it easier to comply”. At LandScale, we are committed to making the documentation and implementation of sustainability efforts as clear and accessible as possible. As we refine the claims mechanism, based on our pilot experience, we will work toward standardizing the claims policy and procedure.
Another key takeaway was the need for a more robust capacity-building program. Both the landscape approach and the process of generating credible, validated claims through participatory methods are relatively novel, which can make some elements of the process – such as rigorous data reporting, risk identification and mitigation, and stakeholder consultation – challenging. By improving our capacity-building efforts, we can equip participating organizations with the tools and knowledge needed to navigate these challenges, ultimately enabling them to fully leverage the mechanism’s potential and maximize its benefits.
The pilot has already demonstrated the significant value of the claims mechanism to those who participated, and the feedback we received has been highly encouraging. Perhaps most encouraging of all, the majority of those surveyed said that they would take part in the process again.
The key lesson we took away is that initiatives like this are crucial because they help validate the social and environmental impacts of company projects in regions where landscape-scale conservation initiatives are implemented.
Looking ahead: The value and future of landscape-level claims
We hope this article demonstrates how validated claims can begin to address skepticism around sustainability efforts among consumers, local communities, and other key stakeholders. Our pilot showed that the claims mechanism offers considerable promise for organizations seeking to make credible, trusted claims about their contributions to landscape initiatives. In addition to providing greater visibility and transparency of actions taken, it allows for performance tracking, which helps to better understand the long-term impact of these efforts on the landscape. This evidence-based approach not only strengthens accountability, but also empowers organizations to refine their sustainability strategies, allowing them to allocate resources more effectively and deliver more meaningful results.
As sustainability trends and consumer expectations continue to evolve, the need for verifiable claims is more important than ever. By committing to data-driven, measurable sustainability efforts, rather than “vague, misleading, or unfounded information”, organizations can set their environmental reputations on firm foundations.
Now is the time to act. The landscape of sustainability is shifting rapidly, and establishing trusted claims today ensures that your organization remains ahead of these developments.
If you are involved in a landscape initiative, visit our claims page to see how our claims mechanism can support your goals.
For more details, you can read our full pilot claims policy here and learn more about the Sierra de Tapalpa landscape here.