In the world of natural capital accounting, there are numerous protocols, initiatives, applications and frameworks. This can be a confusing world to enter, with so many aspects to understand.
At IDEEA Group, we’re focused on guiding people, businesses and organisations through the natural capital landscape. We can help you navigate the minefield of acronyms, terminology and diverse options.
We work with businesses and organisations in a tailored way. We adapt our thinking and approaches to create natural capital solutions that work for you and meet your needs.
In many ways, the team at IDEEA Group play the role of natural capital travel agents. We help organisations understand the range of choices for methods, frameworks, initiatives and tools to gather data. And then we help you choose the best pathway for your business or organisation to follow.
More often than not, we use the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) as the foundation for our work. This framework is the international standard for natural capital accounting and provides both a comprehensive set of concepts and definitions and an accounting framework showing how they relate to each other. Using this comprehensive framework, we can then plug in the best methods, tools and data to create quantitative measures of natural capital.
Our Director, Carl Obst, was the lead author of the SEEA, while fellow Director Mark Eigenraam was a key contributor. This expertise helps us understand natural capital accounting in the global context of where this standard originated and where it is going in the future.
The SEEA is currently used by 92 countries around the world. It is the focus of the implementation work of the Australian Government and other jurisdictions within Australia, including through the Australian 2018 National Strategy for the implementation of natural capital accounting. Recently, the Australian Government has announced an agreement with the United States on implementation of the SEEA.
The recommendations in the SEEA are also embodied in a range of other work being undertaken in this field, including the measurement natural capital risks and opportunities in the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the measurement of ecosystem condition in Accounting for Nature.
In our minds, the SEEA must be at the heart of natural capital accounting. It’s a comprehensive, international and future-proof standard that helps guide decision making. It can be applied in all natural capital contexts. And it works for both business and nature.
Want to know more?
You can schedule a free, 30-minute chat with lead natural capital travel agent Mark Eigenraam to get started on your natural capital journey with us. Connect with us here.