By U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region [CC BY 2.0 (https-//creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
This article was originally published on World Forum on Natural Capital.
“Lord Kelvin is famously quoted as saying: “To measure is to know. If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it.”
A key stage in the application of the Natural Capital Protocol is to determine how a business is contributing to changes in the state of natural capital and what can be done to reduce their impact. Measurement is a crucial step on the path delivering on a natural capital strategy.
For companies with a supply chain, some of the largest impacts on natural capital occur upstream in their value chains, particularly on farms where raw materials are produced. And whilst companies may not own or control these natural assets themselves, they do benefit from the ecosystem goods and services they provide. The decline in these natural assets poses a potential risk to the business.
Many companies are already making progress trying to reduce their impact on natural capital in their supply chains. Companies are supporting the adoption of good farming and conservation practices to protect and restore ecosystems. Companies want the opportunity to demonstrate positive impacts and show they are reversing the trend of environmental degradation but many don’t have access to the right measures that are simple to use and influential to their decision making processes. As pressure on natural capital increases, companies need credible information on the relationship between their activities and natural capital impacts across their operations and supply chains…”
Read on at: World Forum on Natural Capital.
