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Natural Capital

Where do I start?

In order to be able to work with natural capital, entrepreneurs need a step-by-step approach to integrating natural capital in their decision-making.

Step-by-step approach

The first important step for businesses is to realize that there is economic value in the clever utilization of ecosystem services. For instance, in cost reduction and product innovation (see “Business benefits of valuing natural capital” in “Why should I, as an entrepreneur, integrate natural capital in my decision-making?”). The next step is gathering insight in the dependencies and impacts on ecosystem services, and weighing risks and opportunities. A possible subsequent step is to compute the full value of all ecosystem services and biodiversity for the business, or calculating the full (negative) environmental footprint. The insights delivered by this step can serve two purposes: internal decision-making or external reporting (or both). Possible applications are risk management and sustainable procurement. 

KPMG (2012a). (in Dutch)