Rich, robust and passionate. That’s how our CEO Dr Guy Boggs would describe discussion at our Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) Symposium in Perth last week.
A new way of accounting for impacts on nature, NCA is part of the response to increasing calls to better understand, account for and disclose changes in natural capital over time.
Natural capital assessments and accounting have the potential to transform how intangible environmental values are considered in decision-making processes across the life of mine with a view to post-mine legacies.
Many sectors and stakeholders are considering how to adopt NCA and the value this may create. The mining industry is no exception.
As a scalable and cross-sectoral system, it provides mechanisms to consider changes across a company’s assets and integrate into regional and national accounts.
We believe a new resources suite developed with CSIRO, with the support of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), will help meet this challenge.
Practically focused, the resources suite includes a business case, gap analysis and roadmap, guidance, forecasting and case study report.
It is the culmination of 18 months of work by project partners BHP, Alcoa, Hanson, Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI) – featured in the case study report – as well as Curtin University, Murdoch University, the University of South Australia and Syrinx.
Thank you also to the Minerals Council of Australia, Digital Finance CRC and WABSI for your role on the Steering Committee.
The NCA Symposium brought together a range of perspectives as we work to build a common understanding and shared approach. Thank you to all who could join.
Review the slides
With permission from our speakers and presenters, please see the final slide deck for your review.
What’s next?
Our next step is to establish a NCA Consortium to bridge the knowledge, data, systems and cultural gap. Please get in touch if you’re interested a forthcoming NCA Consortium.
