Initiatives
TEEB and IFC

Natural Capital Protocol ... PROJECT: DEVELOPING AND TESTING A HARMONISED FRAMEWORK FOR VALUING NATURAL CAPITAL IN BUSINESS & INVESTOR DECISION MAKING

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

PROJECT: DEVELOPING AND TESTING A HARMONISED FRAMEWORK FOR VALUING NATURAL CAPITAL IN BUSINESS & INVESTOR DECISION MAKING

Project Details

The Challenge

At present there a growing number of fragmented activities underway regarding the valuation of natural capital in business and public sector applications. One of the challenges in scaling uptake in business is the lack of a harmonised approach to enable natural capital valuation to be practically used in applications e.g. internal management, reporting and disclosure.

Project Aim

The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and TEEB for Business Coalition are partnering on a project to draft a harmonised framework for valuing natural capital in business decision making to enable better measurement, management, reporting and disclosure. This is the Natural Capital Protocol. Funding for the project is provided by the Swiss Economic Ministry (SECO) to IFC. The intent is not to invent new methods, but build on the front runners that already exist e.g. the WBCSD Guide to Corporate Ecosystems Valuation, fill the gaps and enable a period of experimentation in the market via different sectors and geographies. This will enable lessons to be learnt and the current gaps to be better understood. It is anticipated that the resulting framework would be the starting point to inform future standards. Two sector specific supporting guides will also be developed to provide specificity that can simplify a sectors use of natural capital valuation. This will focus on agricultural commodities used in food/beverage sector including beef or soy and also the apparel sector e.g. cotton and leather. Future projects could build on this to develop additional sector guides.

The process will be open and consultative to enable key stakeholders from business, policy and practitioners to effectively inform the result. The consultation process will be done using a combination of in person workshops/ events, webinars /calls and circulating documents for comment.

Early adopter businesses and investors are strongly encouraged to participate. Our focus is in particular on business sectors and supply chains with high natural capital impacts e.g. agricultural commodities, forestry, fisheries, energy, mining, construction and some consumer goods e.g. apparel. Subject to agreement with participants, case studies will be produced to illustrate the business case and process for applying natural capital valuation in business and investor applications to further grow the business case.

Media Contact:

Charlotte Masiello-Riome, Senior Communications Strategy Advisor, TEEB for Business Coalition: communications@teebforbusiness.org

Emmy Markoglou, Communications Officer, IFC: emarkoglou@ifc.org