News |Integrated Capitals

New Online Business Training Course on Social and Human Capital to Launch

May 11, 2023 |

The Capitals Coalition, Nature^Squared, WBCSD-BCTI and Social Value International are developing a free, online training course with a focus on business’ transformation through valuing social and human capital.

This interactive course, ‘Transforming Business: Valuing Social & Human Capital’, comes in response to an increased demand from the business and finance sectors to gain a better understanding of the application of social and human capital.

‘Transforming Business: Valuing Social & Human Capital’ will be launching on June 21st, accompanied by a launch event taking place online at 1pm BST. The launch will feature course instructors, discussions with business leaders, beta-testers and others.

Businesses that value their stakeholders, employees, the community in which they operate and their consumers, are able to build stronger, more resilient relationships, increase wellbeing of those affected and improve their financial performance.

By undertaking the course, you will learn how to practically progress toward preserving and creating, rather than eroding, the value of natural, human and social capital alongside financial success. Further real-life context will also be gained from a focus on societal issues weaved throughout.

Participants will hear from the course creators, business leaders and experts, including Natura, SHIFT, Kering, Tony’s Chocolonely, OLAM Food Ingredients, Novartis and Jacobs, about how an integrated approach can benefit the wellbeing of stakeholders, and the impacts and value created for the business. The course will be hosted on the Coursera platform and split into modules offering extended reading, questions and interaction with other participants. This course, whilst primarily tailored for those working in the private sector, will be freely available to all.

In 2022, the Capitals Coalition launched the online course ‘Valuing Nature and People to Inform Business Decision-making‘ with support from We Value Nature, WBCSD, IUCN and partners to fill this knowledge gap for natural capital. Now a year on, ‘Transforming Business: Valuing Social & Human Capital’ introduces practical steps that individuals and businesses can take to integrate social and human capital into their decision-making.

Register for the launch event for ‘Transforming Business: Valuing Social & Human Capital’ taking place on June 21^st, 1-2:30pm BST. The course will be available for registration the same day.

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Introduction from Carl Obst (2017)

Victor Hugo once wrote that “Nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come”. Recognising the true value of natural capital, is one such idea. Across private and public sectors, across disciplines, and around the world, initiatives to advance and develop natural capital thinking have emerged rapidly over the past 10 years.

In a blizzard of acronyms, we have the NCC, SEEA, WAVES, IIRC, KIP-INCA, A4S, GRI, EO4EA – among many others. Are they the same, are they competing, are they useful? To both insiders and outsiders this range of initiatives is confusing at best. At worst, it leads to a lack of engagement, avoidance and misunderstanding.

The reality is that, while differences among these various initiatives do exist, they have all been motivated by a common understanding of the reality that we are losing our stocks of natural capital – and that this matters.

While each initiative may have different origins, some differing objectives, and may reflect variations in technique and method, there is much common ground. Indeed, to engage the broader community in tackling the natural capital challenges we collectively face, we cannot afford to focus on distinctions. Instead, we must look to build on the overlaps and seek to build a common language that will enable the exchange of ideas and ongoing innovation.

It is in this spirit of collaboration that the Natural Capital Coalition, together with the IDEEA Group and supported by over 20 organisations, launches this statement on Combining Forces on Natural Capital.

It is especially relevant that this statement of collaboration is launched at the World Forum on Natural Capital, where leading voices in the movement gather every two years, to share best practice, enduring challenges and build further collaborations.

While progress to date has largely taken place in small pockets, in order to move forward we need to ramp up our efforts and move beyond talking with supporters and “the converted”.

For this, we need leaders who can establish spaces for dialogue and development, and who can ensure that technical debates do not form a barrier to progress, that we take full advantage of the diversity of skills and experience already engaged, and that the big picture is always kept in mind.

I encourage you to take the opportunity to read the statement, to share it within your organisations, to sign on, and to join us as we move towards a better understanding and appreciation of the complex and beautiful world in which we live.

Carl Obst is Director of the Institute for the Development of Environmental-Economic Accounting (IDEEA Group), and Lead Author of the United Nation’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (UN SEEA).