As you start your natural capital accounting journey, a significant step you’ll need to take is to work out how to blend the relevant definitions and concepts with your existing knowledge from fields of expertise like agricultural systems, finance, economics and ecology.
Taking this step is often made more challenging because, once you start looking, you’ll find that there are dozens of frameworks, initiatives, projects, methods, tools, datasets and the like that all seem relevant. And annoyingly, each of these projects has its own acronym that, at first glance, means absolutely nothing.
Earlier this year, we worked with NRM Regions Australia to produce some information sheets help guide people through the natural capital space. ‘Decluttering the natural capital space’ is a terrific guide through the ‘blizzard of acronyms.’
The information sheet identifies four distinct areas in the natural capital space, each playing a different role:
- frameworks and standards to establish what should be measured
- methods present how the data should be collected and transformed to derive accounting outputs, such as a set of environmental accounts
- tools and data platforms that allow data to be collated from multiple sources and for methods to be applied
- initiatives and applications that provide the motivation for measurement and link to decision-making.
You can download the information sheet here.
This thinking about natural capital approaches is central to the way we develop our Natural Capital Roadmaps. Each Roadmap is developed through a process that helps organisations produce their customised natural capital plan for the next 3 to 5 years.
Because we are so familiar with all the frameworks, methods, tools and applications, we can guide you to the best possible solution for your organisation.
Want to know more? Book a free 30-minute discussion to start your natural capital journey with us.
Call our Director, Mark Eigenraam on 0412 239 492 or email mark.eigenraam@ideeagroup.com