Case study: Streamlining Sustainability Reporting for Land Managers

Welcome to the NCMC

The Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue (NCMC) is an open, scientifically rigorous resource for users to identify suitable metrics, methods and data sources for the measurement of natural capital assets, flows of services or benefits, and organisational impacts or dependencies on nature.

Terms and Conditions: The Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue is presented for the purpose of disseminating information free of charge for the benefit of the public.

Given the research nature of the NCMC, this content is not and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors. This website is not a substitute for independent professional advice and users should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.

Use of the information and data contained within this site or these pages is at your sole risk. You accept all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this site and any information or material available from it.

By using the NCMC, you agree that Climateworks Centre will not be liable or responsible (including arising from its negligence) to any parties for any loss, damage, cost or expense incurred or arising out of any person using or relying upon the information in connection with the NCMC and Climateworks Centre disclaims all liability and responsibility arising therefrom.

Climateworks Centre recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with respect to their use of this web site and that users carefully evaluate the accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance of the material on the website for their purposes. By using this website, you release Climateworks Centre from, and agree that Climateworks Centre does not guarantee nor accept, any and all liability howsoever arising from or connected to your use of any material on this website or any linked site and the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of that material.

Security of the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue: Climateworks Centre accepts no liability for any interference with or damage to a user’s computer system, software or data occurring in connection with or relating to this website or its use. Users are encouraged to take appropriate and adequate precautions to ensure that whatever is selected from this site is free of viruses or other contamination that may interfere with or damage the user’s computer system, software or data.

Climateworks Centre applies a range of security controls to protect its website from unauthorised access. However, users should be aware that the World Wide Web is an insecure public network that gives rise to the potential risk that a user’s transactions are being viewed, intercepted or modified by third parties or that files which the user downloads may contain computer viruses, disabling codes, worms or other devices or defects.

Links to external websites: We make every reasonable effort to maintain links to current and accurate information. Please contact us to report any broken links.

This website may contain links to other websites that are external to the Climateworks Centre website. Climateworks Centre takes reasonable care in linking websites but has no direct control over the content of the linked web sites, the changes that may occur to the content on those web sites, or the security arrangements applying to those web sites. It is the responsibility of users to make their own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability and completeness of the information contained on linked external websites.

Links to any external websites do not constitute an endorsement or a recommendation of any material on those web sites or of any third party products or services offered by, from or through those websites. Users of links provided by this web site are responsible for being aware of which organisation is hosting the website they visit.

I Agree to the Terms and Conditions above

Visit user guide I'd like to know more about how to use the NCMC

I'm familiar with the NCMC and want to dive right in

Project partners

Natural capital journey

Framework alignment

System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA)
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework (AASF)

Natural capital activities

Natural capital accounting
Natural capital assessment

Overview

‘Streamlining Sustainability Reporting for Land Managers’ is a two-year project to develop user-friendly natural capital accounts and sustainability reports. The initiative is led by researchers from Federation University’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI).

Partner organisations Corangamite CMA, Food Agility CRC, Precision Ag and Southern Farming Systems are working together to support land managers in the Corangamite region in southwestern Victoria to more easily measure their natural capital assets and risks.

The project will deliver an innovative environmental data platform that aims to reduce the cost and complexity of sustainability reporting for land managers, addressing the increasing need for accessible environmental information.

Location

Leigh River, Native Hut Creek, Bruce Creek and Moorabool River. Credit Chris Bahlo and David Windle.

The challenge

Land managers face a growing number of requests for environmental data from a range of sources e.g. governments, supply chain partners, export markets, banks and investors. These requests aim to assess how sustainably the land is being managed.

However, the data requirements often vary in format and definition, leading to added costs, duplication of effort, and confusion about what should be measured and how.

Approach and solutions

The research team used the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue (NCMC) as a key input to the project.

It provided a valuable starting point as a credible universal framework of natural capital metrics to organise a comparison with all the other relevant accounting and reporting frameworks. In addition, the NCMC was used to identify data sources for the selected metrics of interest.

The project will develop a flexible architecture to enable more efficient reporting. The goal is to handle changing requirements from different stakeholders over time, making the reporting process more adaptable and streamlined.

“The fact that the NCMC links natural capital metrics to around 80 different public data sources was really helpful for us. It saved us time in finding those data sources ourselves, and once you have a starting point like that, it’s also easier to go out and find other sources of data that might be more relevant to a specific project.”
CeRDI Systems Analyst Programmer, Richard Archer

Alignment with key frameworks

Two of the important frameworks to align with were the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNSEEA) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). The NCMC cross-references both of these, providing a big head start. Other relevant frameworks included the Victorian Regional Catchment Strategy and the beef, sheep and grains industry sustainability frameworks, as well as the Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework (AASF).

NCMC’s close alignment with the AASF made it easier for the project team to align metrics across the other industry-specific sustainability frameworks.

Next steps

The project is now developing the data architecture and components of a data integration platform. This phase will refine system functionalities and ensure seamless interoperability with various reporting frameworks.

Advice for others undertaking natural capital measurement

“We’d definitely recommend anyone starting in the natural capital accounting and reporting space that they start by looking at the NCMC – it will save you a lot of time! It sets out a really clear and consistent framework for making sense of the crazy jungle of different accounting and reporting frameworks – there are literally hundreds of different frameworks out there. And it provides really practical, helpful information – like the links to data sources in our case. We’re not in the business of collecting any new data in this project, but if we were, the example methods in the NCMC would also be really useful for that.”

CeRDI Systems Analyst Programmer Richard Archer

Community and participants

Landowners from Leigh River, Native Hut Creek, Bruce Creek and Moorabool River catchments in western Victoria.

Native Hut Creek. Credit Peter Pitfield.

Leigh River Inverleigh. Credit Peter Pitfield.

Read more from partners

Streamlining Sustainability Reporting for Land Managers Food AgilityCRC
Helping land managers demonstrate their environmental credentials Federation University

Contact

For more information about this case study or the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue, email ginger.yeh@climateworkscentre.org

Trouble  downloading?

Provide Feedback