The Natural Capital Coalition is running 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 (NCP). Funding for the project is provided in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Swiss Economic Ministry (SECO) to IFC at the World Bank. The intent is not to invent new methods, but build on the front runners that already exist, 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.
The work on the Protocol brings together the world’s leading institutions on this subject, in the form of two consortia from business, accountancy, consultancy, financial institutions, and NGOs. The two consortia are managed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The consortium managed by the WBCSD, will bring together the various methodologies, systems and ideas currently in the market into the NCP. The consortium managed by the IUCN, will translate the NCP into two sector specific guides and will manage a central hub which will deliver business led pilot testing of the NCP with several global companies.