At the latest Sustainability Week organized by the Economist Impact, out of the two rooms running plenaries, the Energy Transition hall had attracted a full house, whilst the Biodiversity and Natural Capital summit was barely at a third capacity. As it turned out, the audience wasn’t disinterested, they were potentially just lost like the rest of us. The venue outsmarted many people, including our CEO, Mark Gough, as he found himself lining up almost ready to offer an unscheduled keynote to unsuspecting energy listeners.
The Biodiversity speakers weren’t lost at all on this side of the venue, as they were dropping many references to the need for integrated decision-making and referencing the importance of valuing the wider picture. Alan Lovell, Chair of the Environment Agency, for example, gave a systems-view introduction to the UK’s complex water context and made very explicit the need to balance ecosystem services against human needs for infrastructure. In his speech, he made it clear that Britain is not currently paying “the true price” for water, a market failure that escalates cost to the public. This is not only in terms of water security but also economic growth and food production. With the UK facing a 5 billion litre shortage by 2055, largely due to climate change, these and further costs are only set to grow if we cannot fix the incentives.
The theme of recognizing hidden value beyond the current market was reiterated by Jack Watts of the National Farmers Union (NFU). He spoke eloquently about the complex economics of farming and, with a highly sympathetic acknowledgment of the rising cost of living, he mentioned the limitations of reducing the conversation only to the market price of food. He echoed the sentiment with the very clear statement that consumers do “not paying the true price for food” but also that we are failing to recognize the cultural and environmental value that farmers provide to our landscapes. And data backs him up: a government commissioned review found that nearly a third of British farms were loss making in 2025. His statement “in a mature economy, we are misunderstanding the foundations” perfectly framed how hard it is to introduce shifts in established systems and it is perfectly in line with Capitals Coalition. In a sector deeply connected to people, land, culture, and heritage, the recognition of value needed for fully informed decision-making is inevitably misrepresented in the current economic system. The ISFC Forestry Natural Capital project, in collaboration with TNFD, is one example of how we are currently exploring ways to make markets more respectful of assets beyond the provision of commodities.
The conversation continued when our own Mark Gough, having eventually found the right room, sparked a vibrant dialogue with Professor Partha Dasgupta. Mark brought these tensions to light and touched on a feeling many of us share: in an uncertain world, people are searching for meaning. When we don’t see our values and our own priorities reflected in the economy, we feel a sense of discontent and disconnection. We feel lost in the maze (whether or not we are also lost in the venue). All speakers called on broadly different levers of change, whether the hard rationale of long-term return on investment to the need to respect ethics, but it was Professor Dasgupta to remind all of us that we are all asset managers: when managing our homes and finances, we are constantly, in some subjective, balancing materiality and morality.
Over the morning, the Biodiversity and Natural Capital Summit attracted a greater following, and we left the plenary room with a nearly full and thought-provoked audience. As ever, the best conversations emerge over a buffet table, where we met businesses and institutions we hadn’t heard from before, all valuing multiple forms of capital in their operations.
We left the event reassured. The grown interest in Biodiversity and Natural Capital Summit suggests that while the corridors may be hard to navigate, there is evidence that the world is finding its way back to the right room.
