Launching the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit, Helping Business Understand Its Relationship with Nature

​GENEVA, LONDON, BRUSSELS, July 13, 2017 /3BL Media/ -- Today, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Natural Capital Coalition launched the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit, a brand new resource to help companies implement the Natural Capital Protocol - the first-ever standardized framework for measuring business impacts and dependencies on nature.

The Protocol and Toolkit will help businesses address natural capital depletion by improving understanding, measurement and decision-making.

Building on the foundational work of the Protocol, the Toolkit is a free and interactive database with over 50 tools for businesses to use in exploring, experimenting with and carrying out natural capital assessments across their operations.

By having easy access to the tools and methodologies already available in the Toolkit, companies can make progress on their efforts to measure and value their risks and opportunities, so that they can ultimately assess their true costs, true profits, true value.

Over time, the Toolkit will evolve to provide important data about which tools are the most commonly used by business. This will help business leaders understand which methods are the most effective.

“The Toolkit is an important step on the journey to understanding the true cost and true value of business’s impacts and dependencies on nature,” said Peter Bakker, President and CEO at WBCSD. “Understanding natural capital risks and opportunities will help forward-thinking businesses thrive in a world where more sustainable companies continue to become more successful.”

The release of the Toolkit comes exactly one year after the release of the Natural Capital Protocol.

Mark Gough, Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition said, “Released a year ago to the day, the Natural Capital Protocol is now recognized as the harmonized approach for businesses looking to understand their impacts and dependencies on natural capital.  The Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit will further simplify the process of carrying out a natural capital assessment, by providing an up-to-date searchable database of necessary tools presented in the context of the Protocol.

For more information, please contact:

Felicity Glennie-Holmes
WBCSD Communications
glennie-holmes@wbcsd.org
+41 22 839 3110

About the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
WBCSD is a global, CEO-led organization of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world. We help make our member companies more successful and sustainable by focusing on the maximum positive impact for shareholders, the environment and societies.

Our member companies come from all business sectors and all major economies, representing a combined revenue of more than $8.5 trillion and 19 million employees. Our global network of almost 70 national business councils gives our members unparalleled reach across the globe. WBCSD is uniquely positioned to work with member companies along and across value chains to deliver impactful business solutions to the most challenging sustainability issues.

Together, we are the leading voice of business for sustainability: united by our vision of a world where more than 9 billion people are all living well and within the boundaries of our planet, by 2050. http://www.wbcsd.org

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About the Natural Capital Coalition (The Coalition)
The Natural Capital Coalition has developed the Natural Capital Protocol (hereafter “the Protocol”) to make natural capital visible in business decision making. The Coalition has grown considerably over the last year and is now made up of over 250 organizations from a wide range of stakeholder groups including conservation, science and academia, business, associations, standard-setting, finance, accountancy and policy/government. While the Coalition is primarily directed towards solutions for business, it is also a broad ‘Coalition’ as its name suggests, creating a space where all interested parties from all stakeholder groups can work together to create vibrant societies and productive economies through the inclusion of natural capital in decision making.

The Coalition’s Natural Capital Protocol and associated sector guides have been developed through a unique collaborative process, with 38 organizations coming together under contract to develop something for the public good. The Protocol, along with sector guides for the Apparel and Food & Beverage sectors were launched in July 2016. The Protocol aims to support better decisions by including how business interacts with natural capital, in decision-making

The Protocol is freely available at http://naturalcapitalcoalition.org/protocol/.