Standards Development

Scope

This document provides terminology, principles, requirements, and guidelines for the preparation of natural capital accounts for organizations.

Natural capital accounts quantify the impacts from the organization's activities on natural capital, or the dependencies of the organization on natural capital, or both.

 There are two types of natural capital accounts, each with supporting schedules: 

 a)      Natural Capital Income Statement; and

 b)     Natural Capital Balance Sheet. 

This document is applicable to all types of organizations (e.g. public, private (both listed and unlisted) or non-governmental organizations) across all sectors, and of any size (such as SMEs and larger businesses) and to one or more sites at which they operate. A group of organizations that depend on the same natural capital, or that are considering collaborating to change their impacts, may prepare joint natural capital accounts.  

This document is intended to be used by those who will be preparing the natural capital accounts. These can be environmental and sustainability professionals, accountants, economists and others, with sufficient ecological, economic and other relevant knowledge, working in collaboration.  

Natural capital accounts aim to provide information to managers of organizations, and interested parties such as investors, auditors, assurance and certification bodies, regulators, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, customers, and the wider public.  The process of preparing natural capital accounts can be as informative as the results presented in the natural capital accounts.  

This document does not apply to national, sub-national or sector-wide natural capital accounts.