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Glossary of Terms – Natural Capital Initiative

A glossary of terms relevant to natural capital

A4S Essential Guide Series: Natural and Social Capital accounting

An introduction for finance teams on how to align finance thinking with long term environmental and societal trends. It provides a framework to embed this into decision making.

Framework – Framework for reporting environmental information & natural capital – CDSB (Climate Disclosure Standards Board)

A reporting framework for use by companies making disclosures in, or linked to, their mainstream financial reports covering information about the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to their strategy to identify what is of most value to investors in understanding how climate change affects a company’s financial performance and condition. The framework adopts existing standards and practices including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and International Financial Reporting Standards as well as reflecting developments in regulatory and voluntary reporting and carbon trading rules. The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) is a special project of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP – see below) – linking financial and climate change-related reporting to provide policy-makers and investors with clear, reliable information for robust decision making.

Report – Strategic Report Guidance – Financial Reporting Council (FRC)

Non-mandatory guidance on the application of the statutory requirement for a “Strategic Report” for medium and large UK companies. The strategic report is required to explain how the directors have promoted the success of the company, with a focus on its business model, strategy and objectives. This provides a more holistic basis for companies to assess the broader impacts of the business including impacts and dependencies on natural capital.

Briefing – Natural Capital Protocol – Scottish Forum on Natural Capital

One page brief of the Natural Capital Protocol, a framework designed to help generate trusted, credible, and actionable information for business managers to inform decisions.

Summary – Natural Capital Protocol: A primer for business Summary – Natural Capital Coalition

Short introduction to the Natural Capital Protocol and accompanying sector guides. It sets out why applying the Protocol and including natural capital in your considerations will improve your decision making.

Summary – Environmental Profit & Loss (E P&L) – Kering

An open source methodology for valuing the environmental impacts of a business, across its entire supply chain. A leading example of natural capital accounting across the supply chain of a business.

Summary – Integrated Reporting Framework (Page 4 & 5) – IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council)

Summarises the purpose of integrated reporting – to provide a more cohesive and efficient approach to corporate reporting which explains more holistically how an organisation creates value over time. Natural capital is one of the six capitals on which reporting is encouraged

Natural Capital Protocol – Natural Capital Coalition

A framework designed to help generate trusted, credible, and actionable information for business managers to inform decisions.

Natural Capital Toolkit – Natural Capital Coalition / World Business Council for Sustainable Development

An interactive database to help businesses find the right tools to measure and value natural capital as they use the Natural Capital Protocol.

Tool – Environmental Profit & Loss (E P&L) – Kering

An open source methodology for valuing the environmental impacts of a business, across its entire supply chain. A leading example of natural capital accounting across the supply chain of a business.

Natural Capital Business Hub – Natural Capital Coalition

A collaborative, open and dynamic online platform that aims to help diverse companies at different stages on the natural capital journey to: o Evaluate and make the business case for action o Benchmark against other companies and evolving best practices o Learn from curated company case studies o Choose appropriate action targets, frameworks, and tools to incorporate into their internal decision making o Identify high impact partners and projects for collaboration and collective action o Find peers to obtain or offer help and advice

Integrated Reporting Framework – IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council)

A framework for providing a more cohesive and efficient approach to corporate reporting which explains more holistically how an organisation creates value over time. The framework provides “guiding principles” and “content elements” which underpin such reporting, based on six “capitals” or stocks of value – financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital.

Integrated Reporting Examples Database – IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council)

A database containing examples of emerging practice in Integrated Reporting that illustrate how organizations are currently reporting concise information about how their strategy, governance, performance and prospects, in the context of their external environment, lead to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term.

CDP

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) aims to transform the way the world does business to prevent climate change and protect our natural resources by managing environmental risk through improved measurement and reporting. o They hold the largest collection globally of self-reported climate change, water and forest-risk data. o They have a Forests Programme which produced a Global Forests Report in 2015. o They engage with governments providing them with tailored research and analysis of environmental issues and advise on policy formulation on high quality corporate environmental reporting. o They have developed programs and projects to encourage companies to measure their environmental impacts as e means of reducing them. The website contains a great deal of useful information for businesses which have already started their natural capital journey.

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

US sector specific standards which represent voluntary guidance outside the US on the specific sustainability information which businesses in each sector should disclose.