专业会计师用商业行动改善地球：自然资本管理指南（英文版）.pdf

A simple guide to natural capital management for business leaders PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS CHANGING BUSINESS FOR THE PLANET REPORT SERIES: 1 of 4 2020 Association of Chartered Certified Accountants November 2020 About ACCA ACCA is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Were a thriving global community of 227,000 members and 544,000 future members based in 176 countries that upholds the highest professional and ethical values. We believe that accountancy is a cornerstone profession of society that supports both public and private sectors. Thats why were committed to the development of a strong global accountancy profession and the many benefits that this brings to society and individuals. Since 1904 being a force for public good has been embedded in our purpose. And because were a not-for-profit organisation, we build a sustainable global profession by re-investing our surplus to deliver member value and develop the profession for the next generation. Through our world leading ACCA Qualification, we offer everyone everywhere the opportunity to experience a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management. And using our respected research, we lead the profession by answering todays questions and preparing us for tomorrow. Find out more about us at PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS CHANGING BUSINESS FOR THE PLANET: A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT FOR BUSINESS LEADERS This guide is the output of ACCAs desk-based research and information from our contributors, who have provided valuable insights through their participation in the roundtables and interviews that we conducted as part of this project. We have provided many examples and links to other organisations with natural capital management expertise to give readers further support in connecting to more detail. In providing these links, ACCA is not intending to endorse any commercial activities associated with these organisations. Contents Executive summary 5 1. Introduction 7 2. Determining strategic options and deciding on your natural capital management strategy 10 2.1 Know your natural capital impacts and dependencies 10 2.2 Determine your options 12 2.2.1 Adopt the innovative mindset of a sustainability trailblazer 14 2.2.2 Learn from others 14 2.3 Use a framework for choosing between your options 16 3. Implementing your natural capital management strategy 20 3.1 Governance 20 3.1.1 People and skills 20 3.1.2 Process and systems 20 3.2 Finance 24 3.3 Communication 24 References 26 4 A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS For many professional accountants, formulating and executing natural capital strategies is likely to be a new experience, and a journey, that will comprise several key steps. Know where you want to go this starts with understanding your natural capital risks and opportunities by connecting the organisations value chain to its areas of natural capital dependency and impact. Get on the journey by putting in place a sustainability governance framework, which will enable options to be identified and decided upon. Then build the business case for obtaining finance, and develop natural capital capability, motivate people and implement strategic actions related to the multi-capitals (see Figure 1.2) approach, assessing progress that will, where necessary, trigger the required risk interventions. Let others know where you are, by using the data from your multi-capitals information systems not only for your own decision making but also for engaging with stakeholders, communicating progress relevantly and reliably. Our key messages at the start of each of this reports sections provide high-level guidance to better appreciation of the journey, with the text that follows setting out the steps in more detail, accompanied by examples. Executive summary 5 A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS GET ON THE JOURNEY BY PUTTING IN PLACE A SUSTAINABILITY GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK, WHICH WILL ENABLE OPTIONS TO BE IDENTIFIED AND DECIDED UPON. 6 FIGURE 1.1: Vicious and virtuous cycles 1. Introduction Natural capital is likely to be material to many organisations if, as research suggests, 50% of global GDP depends on it. It means that sustainable organisations and societal value creation will be connected to good natural A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS capital management (see Franco and WEF 2020; WEF and PwC 2020). A failure to manage dependency and impact on nature can create a vicious cycle (ACCA 2014) (see Figure 1.1), threatening business model resilience. Vicious cycle of natural capital and business Natural capital use Natural capital scarcity and impacts Business performance Business risks Investor decison making IMPACTS INFLUENCES CAUSES CREATES DRIVES Virtuous cycle resulting from natural capital management and accounting Sustainable management of natural capital Natural capital scarcity and impacts Organisational sustainability and natural capital strategy Reputational, operational, regulatory, supply chain risks Investment sources (eg banks, pension funds etc) MANAGES JUSTIFIES REDUCES MITIGATES PROVIDES CONFIDENCE Key messages As a professional accountant and leader, you have direct responsibility for an organisations long-term financial well-being, through sustainable value creation. To do this you must assess and drive strategic option selection, finance, risk management and control, together with leading performance reporting. For many organisations, natural capital is a material factor underpinning the organisations resilience, therefore financial well-being will be connected to good natural capital management. For professional accountants in leadership roles who are relatively new to natural capital management, we provide practical guidance, brought to life by examples to help you set and implement natural capital management strategies. 7 A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS Business leaders, including chief executive officers (CEOs), chief operating officers (COOs) and chief finance officers (CFOs), set and implement strategy. The CFO has the direct responsibility for an organisations financial well-being, which can only be sustained if due attention is paid to all underpinning material capitals (see Figure 1.2) (IIRC n.d.). As we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, human and natural capital issues that may once have been considered immaterial for an organisations financial well-being can very quickly become material (IMP 2020). 1 Materiality and the business imperative to act are also driven by demand from external stakeholders, not least the investment community and regulators. Business leaders need to appreciate all the capitals, assessing materiality relative to value creation risk and opportunity, to avert vicious natural capital cycles and create virtuous ones. In many organisations, and often less complex or smaller ones, the roles of CEO, COO and CFO may be combined, making the skill set of the professional accountant a vital component of the business leadership team in driving strategic option selection, financing, managing risk, and reporting performance fairly. This guide provides you, the business leaders, who may be relatively new to natural capital management, with simple practical guidance, supported by examples, exploring the factors and processes required to set and implement natural capital management strategies. For those who wish to know more, we have included links to additional information. While the discussion here focuses on natural capital management, you will find that the principles can be applied to other environmental and social issues relevant to business. FIGURE 1.2: The interconnected multi-capitals This is one of many ways to depict the capitals. Typically, financial and manufactured capitals are the ones organisations most commonly report on. The IIRC takes a broader view by also considering intellectual, social and relationship, and human capitals and natural capital, which provides the environment in which the other capitals sit. 1 As highlighted in the Statement of Intent to Work Together Towards Comprehensive Corporate Reporting, signed by CDP, CDSB, GRI, IIRC and SASB in September 2020, . Source: Incite Sustainability 2.0: A Guide to Competing in a Changing World Intellectual capital Human capital Social and relationship capital Natural capital Manufactured capital Financial capital BUSINESS LEADERS NEED TO APPRECIATE ALL THE CAPITALS, ASSESSING MATERIALITY RELATIVE TO VALUE CREATION RISK AND OPPORTUNITY, TO AVERT VICIOUS NATURAL CAPITAL CYCLES AND CREATE VIRTUOUS ONES. 8 A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS 9 2. Determining strategic options and deciding on your natural capital management strategy A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS Any strategy will always start with understanding the current operating environment, before moving on to determining options for managing risk or realising opportunity. In this next section, we outline how to determine your: natural capital impacts and dependencies, and potential strategic options, including choosing between them. 2.1 Know your natural capital impacts and dependencies An evaluation of natural capital impacts and dependencies across your organisations value chain will help you understand your current risks and future opportunities (see Box 2.1), from which you will be able to determine potential strategic options. This evaluation should consider the following points. The value-chain scope: is it from point of business entry to exit or does it extend to suppliers and customers? The type of dependency or impact: what does the business need from nature or what impact does business activity have on nature? Dependency will typically be expressed as the input from nature, for example land or water. Impact could be expressed as damaging output, for example emissions to soil or waterways, or outcome, the actual impact on nature itself, for example biodiversity loss or biological density reduction. The extent to which the impact on nature will be considered is referred to as boundaries. n Scope 1 direct impacts owned or controlled by the business, for example, use of land to grow agricultural crops such as wheat for flour. n Scope 2 indirect impacts from utility services consumed by the business, for example the emissions from purchased energy used to power the equipment that harvests the wheat. n Scope 3 all other ancillary impacts arising from the value chain, for example, the emissions and by-products produced by the chemicals company that manufactures pesticides used to protect wheat crops. The mechanism for creating a common scale for measuring impacts, aiding comparability (see Figure 2.1) (Granskog et al. 2020). Key messages Know your natural capital impacts and dependencies by conducting a natural capital value-chain analysis using a common scale to aid decision making. Determine your potential strategic options using the 4Rs model. To help you do this: n employ the innovative mindset of a sustainability trailblazer (ACCA 2020), thinking holistically and at a macro level n collaborate with your network, including natural capital groups and the local community. Select your strategic option by using an integrated-thinking matrix supported by a feasibility study aligning strategy with vision. 10 A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS Box 2.1: Dependency and impacts on nature guidance Measures impacts and dependences on nature by issue, sector and/or geography: naturalcapitalcoalition/natural-capital-protocol/ cbd.int/business/resources/tools.shtml encore.naturalcapital.finance/en/explore?tab=dependencies Approaches to biodiversity impact assessments: ec.europa.eu/environment/biodiversity/business/assets/pdf/European_BB_platform_report_biodiversity_ assessment_2019_FINAL_5Dec2019.pdf Raw material sourcing: cisl.cam.ac.uk/resources/natural-resource-security-publications/measuring-business-impacts-on-nature Agriculture sector: Impacts of human activities on biodiversity: globio.info/ Biodiversity implications by geography: ibat-alliance/ FIGURE 2.1: Worked example for the clothing sector Value-chain scope: assumed to include suppliers and customers as chain starts with raw materials and ends with disposal (end use) Types: taken as the three dependencies of land, water and energy and two impacts of chemical pollution and waste production, identified as inputs and outputs respectively. Boundaries: Assumed to be scope 1 and 2 based on value-chain content and impacts selected. If scope 3 is included, it is likely to be at a more detailed level of analysis Common scale: The circle sizing creates a common scale, much like a traffic light system. At a glance key problems area are: raw material production land, use of water and energy processing chemicals and energy end use waste. 11 2.2 Determine your options Having analysed the natural capital value chain, it is then important to identify both the risks and opportunities to which this gives rise, to inform the potential strategic response. A framework, such as the 4Rs of restore, reduce, remove and reimagine success used here, can help generate potential strategic option ideas (see Figure 2.2). Envisaging small changes related to the 3Rs of remove, reduce and restore is probably relatively easy. The fourth R, reimagining success, demands rethinking the meaning of value, and this should be closely connected to the organisations purpose and vision. In reimagining success, strategic decisions related to the trade-offs between different capitals will inevitably need to be taken (see Box 2.2). A SIMPLE GUIDE TO NATURAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT | BUSINESS LEADERS FIGURE 2.2: Definition of the 4Rs REMOVE: cease the activity, or replace it with alternatives that will achieve the same outcome, for example no longer using plastic packaging, possibly replacing it with recyclable packaging. REDUCE: lessen negative impact by employing principles of taking only what is necessary or using natural capital that is already damaged. RESTORE: repair the negative impact, for example by regenerating what has been lost. REIMAGINE: create innovative transformation to achieve the 3Rs above, or create new value, fundamentally involving a mindset change, for example: remove impacts from power generation by using only wind or solar powered energy sources reduce impacts through n circular economy principles, where waste from your process becomes an asset in anothers production n generating greater yields from land New value through repurposing business, for example producing geothermal energy from disused oil wells. R E M O V E R E ST O R E R E D U C E R E I M AG IN E P r o c e s s I n v estmen t C o m m u n i c a t i o n D a t a a nd eva lu a t i o n Natural capital strategy Box