Taking stock of nature's capital

HEALTHY CAMPAIGN: Walk For Water, a march from Havelock North to Hastings CBD, was staged after a gastro outbreak in Havelock North last month.

"WE USE nature because she's valuable. We lose nature because she's free" - Pavan Sukhdev, keynote speaker at the 2013 Valuing Nature conference in Wellington.

A former banker, he was the study leader for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a global initiative focused on "making nature's values visible".

The TEEB model advocates for a total accounting system which factors in natural capital alongside financial, human, and social capital.

This is not simply "putting a price on nature" - rather it measures the extrinsic value of nature so it can be applied in economic terms to businesses and corporations.

To conservationists who already comprehend the intrinsic value of nature without it needing to be quantified, this concept may sound distasteful. Nevertheless, TEEB provides a framework to gauge the long-term viability and sustainability of any given business or organisation, and guidelines for decision makers which include the contribution of, and costs to, nature.

Unsurprisingly, a total accounting system would mean that many existing businesses and corporations would no longer be viable - or at least, not without a radical overhaul of practices.

Unfortunately for such businesses, the world is rapidly transitioning from the nature-subsidised "business-as-usual" model to one which is becoming increasingly aware of the value of the environment versus the costs of devaluing it.

Consider recent events in Havelock North if you disagree.

Some aspiring, and sitting, Whanganui District Council candidates have expressed the view that local government is a business. In that case, how sustainable, and viable, would this council "business" be in TEEB terms?

The environment (in TEEB terms: natural capital) is a glaring omission in the "business plans" of many of these candidates - other than saying "it's a great place to live". Yet the natural environment - temperate climate, the Whanganui River and National Park, its fertile soils, beaches and proximity to the mountains - is surely the most valuable asset that the "business" of Whanganui has.

Most of these candidates also talked about the need to create jobs - without saying how. Few candidates mentioned the vast wealth of community groups (human and social capital), nor the possibility of collaboration with them - assuming instead that a top-down business approach will solve social and economic problems, while ignoring the solutions bubbling up from the grassroots.

Thankfully, there is a viable middle path for job creation in Whanganui which carves out a niche between conventional business and the charitable sector; an emerging enterprise model which is sustainable in environmental, human, and financial terms - and that is Social Enterprise.

In the age of "the 99 per cent", making money for money's sake - and never mind the social or environmental consequences, has gone out of fashion. No new solutions to global problems are coming from the same old thinking.

Some wannabe politicians may want to upgrade their mindsets to accommodate this new reality.

-Nicola Patrick, who has worked for the NZ Social Enterprise incubator kina Foundation, will be discussing the possibilities of Social Enterprise for Whanganui at Green Drinks tomorrow at Delicious Cafe at 5.30pm. Green Drinks is non-politically aligned, all are welcome, no entry cost. More info can be found on the website: greendrinks.org/ - /Whanganui

- Helen Marie O'Connell is an independent project co-ordinator, one of Whanganui's many contributors in the volunteer sector, and part of the 99 per cent.