The Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) and Valuing Nature, with the support of Bradesco and the Votorantim Institute, organized the workshop The Valuation of Natural Capital in Brazil, which took place on August 2nd, in São Paulo. The content of the event revolved around the importance of assigning value to natural capital, existing methodologies, the progress brought by the publication of the Natural Capital Protocol and practical cases from the companies Votorantim, Dow Química, Natura, TNC and Engie.
The event was opened by André Ramalho, technical advisor at CEBDS. He explained that the valuation of natural capital is an agenda under construction internationally and discussing the topic is an opportunity to discover more dynamic visions and tools that are being used by organizations.
Then, Roberto Strumpf, from Pangea Capital, highlighted the importance of measuring this capital and justified it by saying that if we cannot measure it, then we cannot manage it. And quoting American President Robert Kennedy, he argued that natural capital, which brings true well-being to the planet, has been relegated to a lesser importance than financial capital and GDP, and that this needs to change: “GDP does not measure our courage, nor our wisdom, nor our knowledge, nor our compassion, nor our devotion to our country. In short, GDP measures everything except that which makes life worth living” (Robert Kennedy, March 1968).
Samuel Vionnet, from Valuing Nature, spoke about the Natural Capital Protocol was released on the 13th. He explained that it is a framework standardized for business to help identify, measure and assign value to the direct and indirect impacts and dependencies of natural capital. “To measure, it is important to determine the quantity, extent and conditions of natural capital in physical terms. To evaluate, one must estimate the relative importance, value or usefulness of natural capital for people and businesses,” he distinguished.
Brazilian cases
In the presentation of practical cases of natural capital valuation, Frineia Rezende, Sustainability and Innovation General Office from Votorantim Participações, spoke about the Votorantim reserve case. He said that the company has been investing in the preservation of an area of 31 thousand hectares of Atlantic Forest, and described the results of this initiative, not only for the company, but for the population of the State of São Paulo. “The difficulty that companies have in recognizing their direct relationship with ecosystem services is very great; financial teams, for example, have to look at this. We woke up to this issue and today we have a well-defined strategy for ecosystem services”, he shared.
Sofia Benedicto, Remediation Project Manager in the The Dow Chemical Company, explained that valuing natural capital is one of the company's main pillars and that this also brings financial returns. She also mentioned the six-year partnership with TNC – The Nature Conservancy who helped Dow find ways to incorporate nature values into business decisions.
Finally, Natura closed the case study section by presenting its Externalities Valuation Project. Andreza Boccardo Souza, from Natura’s Sustainability department, said that the project involved everything from the planting, extraction, manufacturing, distribution, to the consumer, including the use and total degradation of packaging. The project is one of the most complete and advanced in terms of valuing natural capital ever implemented in the country, so much so that Natura has already managed to assign a value to its environmental impact: R$132 million, equivalent to R$21,300,000 of revenue. “Our ultimate goal is to contribute to the establishment of a new capitalism,” commented Andreza.
Check out the available presentations:
DOW – Sofia Benedicto, Marco Brito
NATURAL CAPITAL COALITION – Introduction
NATURAL CAPITAL COALITION – Details
PANGAEA CAPITAL – Roberto Strumpf
NESTLE AND ENGIE – Samuel Vionnet
