News |Integrated Capitals

Green is gold: Chinese dairy company setting an example in China

May 30, 2025

China Shengmu Organic Milk Limited (Shengmu) is the largest organic dairy company in China. It produces organic raw milk in a circular way. As one of the participants in the TEEB project, Shengmu initiated its first multi-capital assessment.

This gave them insight into their impact and dependency on natural, social, human and produced capital and enabled them to measure and value these impacts and dependencies. Based on this valuation, they have identified risks and opportunities associated with their impacts and dependencies.

This assessment strengthened their strategy and added business value. They found that they could reduce operating costs, boost revenue as their premium is 21,7% higher than regular milk, enhance their brand value and reduce their financing costs. On top of these, the assessment helped them to secure a RMB 100 million green loan from the Bank of China to transform their business further. This loan is notably the first nature-positive loan in China, setting a pioneering example.

Interested in learning how a capitals assessment can boost your strategy? Read the full report here

From 2020 to 2023, the Capitals Coalition led the TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) AgriFood for Business project, as part of the larger TEEB AgriFood project led by UNEP TEEB and funded by the EU. This project focuses on developing case studies for the private sector to showcase why its relevant for businesses to incorporate the value provided by nature and people into decision-making. The project focused on seven emerging economies: Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand.

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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).