Abstract:

With all of the current pressures around carbon net zero, water positive, and biodiversity protection goals, in concert with increased demand for energy transition, understanding what feasible and practical solutions are available to adequately and cost-effectively meet these challenges has assumed a new level of importance. Natural capital can play a significant role in addressing these challenges while also unlocking inherent project value.

Natural Capital is defined as the world’s renewable and non-renewable resources that provide a flow of goods and services to all living things. Non-renewable natural capital includes but is not limited to oil and gas, gold, silver, lithium, cobalt, coal, aggregates, etc. Renewable natural capital is air, land and water and everything that lives within those matrices with the exception of humans-we’re our own capital. Natural capital possesses the potential to generate value-whether that value is acquired through developing, harvesting, and/or extracting that natural capital and bringing it to market, or through the ecosystem services it provides.

By understanding the natural capital that is contained within a portfolio of properties or within a project site, proponents can identify opportunities to invest in nature to practically and sustainably achieve numerous goals. For example, identifying available natural capital could highlight the potential to utilize a nature-based solution (NbS) to sustainably solve a problem and generate a multiplicity of benefits at the same time such as increased carbon sequestration, enhanced water and air quality, protection of biodiversity and increased real estate value. Natural capital can also highlight the potential to generate previously unrecognized value on a redundant property by integrating the natural capital into a strategic divestment strategy.

This presentation will provide an overview of the Natural Capital approaches, NbS, and the tools that are available to support the scaling and design of a project specifically targeted at investing in nature to reduce environmental impacts, reduce carbon footprints, and protect biodiversity. Several recent project examples will be highlighted to illustrate the application of these tools and the resultant improvements in project valuations and optionality.

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Ray Sabiston-Cisek