5 October 2011: The UN Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has announced, with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and CREM, a consultancy firm, the release of a publication titled “Approach for Reporting on Ecosystem Services: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into an Organization’s Performance Disclosure.”

The publication considers issues around ecosystem services, and how corporations interact with them, reap the benefits, and as a result need to monitor and protect them. According to UNEP, measuring the financial value of ecosystem services to support corporate decision making is an emerging challenge for enterprises. For example, although many corporations already monitor pressures on the local environment, such as their emissions and effluents, such measurements do not take into account all the benefits that people or companies derive from ecosystems.

The new publication suggests indicators that organizations could use to assess and report their impacts on ecosystem services. Indicators could include: nature and the amount of natural resources harvested, produced, traded and/or consumed by a corporation in relation to the safe ecological limits; the volume of water consumed by corporations in relation to total water availability in areas of operation, including identification of water sources; economic cost to a corporation due to climate-related disasters, such as flooding or crop failure; and the volume of inputs from sources complying with credible and internationally recognized responsible production standards, including through labeling. [UNEP Press Release] [Publication: Approach for Reporting on Ecosystem Services: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into an Organization’s Performance Disclosure]