Dan Van der Horst & Rose Pritchard, University of Edinburgh
Trends and limits in the early adoption of Natural Capital in the Private Sector
Report now available - download here
From the authors:
"A growing number of businesses are trying to value their impacts and dependencies on natural capital - but is this approach really creating benefits for business and the environment? This report evaluates the current state of corporate natural capital assessment and identifies key research priorities in this rapidly evolving field."
Project Summary
In order to manage the earth’s limited resources more sustainably, all sectors of society need to engage with natural capital. The private sector has a key role to play here. It has often been perceived as ‘hard to reach’, but we can now observe a growing interest among companies.
Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods we will produce a synthesis report that will describe and explain the trends of early adoption of natural capital accounting by companies; what evidence do they seek, in what format and metrics and for what purpose? And to what extent have these innovative business approaches actually led to effective interventions in preserving and better managing natural capital? A better understanding of the ‘low hanging fruits’ and the limitations of successful early adoption by businesses will also enable us to explore how academia could play a more effective supporting role through knowledge exchange, skills development and collaborative research.
Outputs
Presentation introducing project ideas