The Natural Capital Coalition (NCC), formerly TEEB for Business Coalition, announced on 8 July to have selected two consortia to develop what will be known as the Natural Capital Protocol (NCP). The NCP intends to be an open source, global multi-stakeholder framework for understanding, measuring and valuing the impacts and dependencies on the natural environment, as well as understanding the risks and opportunities presented for businesses when natural capital is accounted for in business decision making. 

The work on the Protocol brings together leading institutions on this subject, in the form of two consortia from business, accountancy, consultancy, financial institutions, and NGOs. The two consortia are managed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The consortium managed by the WBCSD, will bring together the various methodologies, systems and ideas currently in the market into a single harmonised measurement and valuation framework for natural capital. The consortium managed by the IUCN, will translate the Protocol into two sector specific guides on food & beverage and apparel.

It is expected that a fully tested first version of the Protocol can be presented by December 2015.

Further reading:

<link http: www.naturalcapitalcoalition.org news article natural-capital-coalition-selects-two-global-consortia-to-develop-the-natural-capital-protocol.html>Press release NCC from 8 July 2014

NCC recently published a study giving an overview of existing initiatives and methods: <link http: www.naturalcapitalcoalition.org js plugins filemanager files valuing_nature_in_business_part_2_taking_stock_web.pdf _blank>"<link http: www.naturalcapitalcoalition.org js plugins filemanager files valuing_nature_in_business_part_2_taking_stock_web.pdf _blank>Valuing Natural Capital in Business - Taking Stock: Existing Initiatives and Applications" (2014)

The Global Nature Fund has published an overview in German: <link http: www.naturalcapitalmarkets.org uploads media gnf_-_wie_unternehmen_ihr_naturkapital_bewerten.pdf _blank>"Wie Unternehmen ihr Naturkapital ökonomisch erfassen: Bestandsaufnahme und Handlungsempfehlungen" 

In May, WWF Germany issued a report that explores recent trends and developments in natural capital accounting with a focus on national accounting by governments (as opposed to corporate accounting): <link http: www.wwf.de fileadmin fm-wwf publikationen-pdf background-accounting-for-natural-capital-in-eu-policy-decision-making.pdf _blank>Accounting for Natural Capital in EU Policy Decision-Making