Time to Take Stock

For years, corporations, governments and NGOs have been conducting natural capital assessment and accounting exercises that notionally include natural capital. In practice, however, they often fall short of adequately recognising and measuring the changes in the state of the underpinning biophysical assets. With the Science Based Targets for nature (SBTs for nature) and the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) being developed, now is the time to take stock of how biophysical assets should be identified, measured, recorded, summarised and reported. This working paper contributes to these discussion. The paper provides a definition for corporate natural capital accounting (CNCA), and the steps for conducting this accounting. These steps are called the 7 CNCA standardisations. By using the 7 CNCA standardisations, organisations can improve their natural capital accounting with asset registers of stocks, ecological equivalency, double entry bookkeeping and statements of position and performance.