Amount of land used per unit of production (land use efficiency)

Type

Impact driver

Related framework / metric

TNFD: A1.0, FA.A4.1, FA.3.0

Units

Area, e.g. hectares (ha) per unit mass of product output, e.g. tonnes (t)

Example target

Benchmark against best practice

Example methods / guidance / references

What are tiers?

Tier 1

Estimate using own judgement and observations

Tier 2

Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data

Tier 3

Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.

Example data sources

Internal records

Third-party data sources

Site-specific measurements or model outputs

Notes

Note that this metric is the inverse of what is commonly termed ‘yield’ (mass of product output per unit area of land).
Variants of this metric include:

TNFD additional disclosure metric A1.0: “Land-use intensity (tonnes or litres of output/km2). This will vary by sector context; for example, crop yield (tonnes/km2) for the agriculture sector.”

TNFD Food and agriculture additional disclosure metric FA.A4.1: “Land use efficiency (ha land/kg of product).”

TNFD FA.A3.0: “Actual and potential yield (kg/km2), and yield gap, by type of crop.”

Last updated: 21st May 2025

Type

Impact driver

Units

Area, e.g. hectares (ha)

Example target

Benchmark against best practice

Example methods / guidance / references

What are tiers?

Tier 1

Estimate using own judgement and observations

Tier 2

Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data

Tier 3

Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.

Example data sources

Internal records

Third-party data sources

Maps of catchment-scale Australian land use are available for the Northern Territory, Queensland and Tasmania via links at Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) – Land use data download.

Site-specific measurements or model outputs

Data on Australian land use at various scales are available at Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) – Land use data download.

Notes

Note that land/freshwater/ocean-use change may be derived from Land accounts (see Land). For example, land conservation or restoration may involve a change from a more intensive use (e.g. class 1.1 Agriculture) to a less intensive use (e.g. class 1.5 Land used for maintenance and restoration of environmental functions, or class 1.7 Land not in use). Additional analysis may be required to determine the extent to which measured change has been caused by the reporting entity. Variants of this metric include:

TNFD core disclosure metric C1.1: “Extent of land/freshwater/ocean ecosystem use change (km2) by:
• Type of ecosystem; and
• Type of business activity.

Extent of land/freshwater/ocean ecosystem conserved or restored (km2), split into:
• Voluntary; and
• Required by statutes or regulations.

Extent of land/freshwater/ocean ecosystem that is sustainably managed (km2) by:
• Type of ecosystem; and
• Type of business activity.”

Last updated: 10th June 2025