Educate

Understanding the full spectrum of value your organization creates, depends on, and puts at risk.

Most business decisions are made with incomplete information. When accounting frameworks capture only financial inputs and outputs, the natural systems, social relationships, and human capacities that underpin long-term value remain invisible to decision-makers – until they become liabilities. Capitals thinking addresses this gap by offering a structured way to see, measure, and account for what conventional reporting leaves out.

At the core of this approach are the Capitals Protocols and the Integrated Decision-Making Framework – tools developed by the Capitals Coalition and now in use by organizations across more than 50 countries. The Natural Capital Protocol and the Social and Human Capital Protocol give organizations practical methodologies for identifying and measuring their dependencies and impacts on natural capital and on social and human capital respectively. The Integrated Decision-Making Framework is the Coalition’s more recent integrated methodology, bringing both Protocols into a single structured approach that examines all four capitals – natural, social, human, and produced – as an interconnected system rather than through separate assessments. This section offers accessible introductions to all three, along with guidance on how to begin.

Beyond the Protocols, a wider landscape of measurement frameworks, disclosure standards, and reporting schemes has taken shape – driven by regulatory pressure, investor expectations, and the expanding reach of instruments like TNFD, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s disclosure targets, and ISSB sustainability standards. These frameworks serve different purposes and speak to different audiences. We have compiled an overview of the major schemes most relevant to Canadian organizations, with commentary on how they relate to each other and where each tends to be most applicable by sector and scale.

Staying current matters. The policy and regulatory environment for non-financial disclosure is shifting quickly, and the pace of development in natural and social capital accounting is accelerating. Through our newsletter and curated news archive, CHC functions as a single point of access for developments from our international partners – including the Capitals Coalition, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Business for Nature, and the Rio Conventions bodies – so that Canadian organizations do not have to monitor a dozen separate feeds to stay informed.

We are also building a library of past events, webinars, and practitioner conversations – material that does not expire when the session ends. The resources here are intended for organizations at different points in the journey: those encountering capitals thinking for the first time, and those looking to develop an existing practice with more rigour and current awareness.