Transformation in the agrifood sector has the potential to deliver systemic benefits for nature, people and businesses. The TEEBAgriFood for Business project developed guidance to enable the sector to adopt a capitals approach to build resilience, mainstream best practice, protect biodiversity and contribute to a more sustainable food system.
Capital Type
All capitals
Sectors
Agriculture, food, beverage, and apparel
Partners
UNEP TEEB: UN Environment Program – The economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity.
European Union (funder)
IBCSD
DHI
GoldenBee
CEBDS
CRB
Amebin
GIZ
Project Description
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food (TEEBAgriFood) initiative brings together scientists, economists, policymakers, business leaders and farmers’ organizations to undertake and apply holistic assessments of agricultural systems, practices, products and policies.
Through its work, the initiative highlighted the need for organisations in the food system to better assess their impacts and dependencies on natural, social and human capital, and provides them with guidance to apply this information in their decisions in ways that deliver benefits across the system.
As part of a project generously supported by the EU and as part of this global UNEP TEEB project, Capitals Coalition worked with businesses in seven partner countries: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and Thailand.
Project activities:
- Development of Guidelines for business application, outlining how they can take better decisions based on assessment, measurement and valuation of invisible flows and stocks of natural, social and human capitals across agri-food value chains. An international and high-level panel Steering Committee oversaw the development of these guidelines.
- Boost country-wide collaboration through robust country-level networks and partnerships. Webinars on sustainable agriculture were organized across the seven partner countries with local organization: IBCSD, CEBDS, AMEBIN, GoldenBee, DHI, CRB, GIZ.
- Organizing roundtables in each country, bringing together key stakeholders to discuss geographically specific challenges, share best practices, and provide input to the guidelines based on the TEEBAgriFood Evaluation Framework and the Natural and Social & Human Capital Protocols.
- Building capacity through training programes that provided knowledge and expert support to carry out natural, social and human capital assessments and pilot studies.
- Consolidate practical case applications, sharing evidence and scaling up guidance to a global audience for the transformation of decision-making in the world agri-food sector.
Project Findings
The Guidelines provide context on why the four capitals are relevant and how businesses benefit from the value they receive from nature and people. They develop the case for a multi-capital assessment, provide practical examples to demonstrate sector-specific applications, and offer a way to understand the true costs of impacts across the supply chain. The User Template provides a clear checklist for each stage of a capitals assessment. By answering the questions, businesses can easily document, analyze, and interpret their results.
Partnerships have been formalized with many local partners and some of them became Capitals Coalition’s hub or member of Capitals Coalition Advisory Panel.
The roundtables led to a wide range of feedback and local perspectives that informed national food system transformation efforts. In each country, a roundtable report was produced in 2020. Additional in-person events bringing together partners, businesses, and policymakers were organized towards the end of the project in Brazil, Indonesia, India, and Mexico
The live trainings delivered in all countries have been consolidated into a self-guided training program available to download free of charge. ‘Putting Nature and People at the Centre of Food System Transformation’ training program aims to support businesses towards creating a nature-positive, socially just food system. By the end of the course, learners will:
- Understand how the capitals approach can enable better business decision making .
- Gain familiarity with how to assess business risks and opportunities based on natural, social human capital.
- Have a basic understanding of how to assess, measure and value impacts and dependencies on nature and people across operations and value chains.
- Become familiar with the process of a capitals assessment and become equipped with the tools to start an assessment.
- Be inspired to drive change.
It is composed of 4 modules and a Trainee workbook:
Module 1: Frame- why a capitals assessment is relevant to my business?
Module 2: Scope- what would be an appropriate objective and scope for my capitals assessment?
Module 3: Measure & Value – how to start measuring and valuing your impacts and dependencies on the capitals?
Module 4: Apply – how to interpret and verify the results of the assessment and how to take action?
TEEBAgriFood for business team supported many businesses around the world. As a result, the following businesses decided to publish their case as Pilot Applications: Agronegocios del Plata, Aires de Campo, Apeam, Apollo Tyres Foundation, Arvind, Banorte, Binatani Sejahtera, Biovert Protein, Candra Naya Lestari, Ecociate, Embrapa, Grupo Herdez, Go4Fresh, Great Giant Foods, Liv Up, Nuu Pão de Queijo & Embrapa, Olam Agri, Shengmu Organic Milk, SOESP, Veinte Soles, Yunnan Astral ESG Investment CO.
Project Outputs
Pilot Applications
Transformation in the agrifood sector has the potential to deliver systemic benefits for nature, people and businesses. The TEEBAgriFood for Business project has developed the TEEB Operational Guidelines for Business to support businesses in conducting a capitals assessment. A capitals approach can enable organizations to build resilience, mainstream best practice, protect biodiversity and contribute to a more sustainable food system.
From 2020-2023, Capitals Coalition delivered training sessions, based on the Guidelines, to agrifood businesses in seven project partner countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and Thailand). Participants of the training course were encouraged to conduct a capitals assessment within their business to work towards a pilot application of the Guidelines. These pilot applications showcase the capitals approach and benefits of undertaking a capitals assessment within the agrifood sector.
In addition to participating in the training course, business representatives received support from the TEEBAgrifood Project team and external consultants to progress their pilot applications. The key focus was the provision of support in the process of conducting a capitals assessment.
As the project ends in 2023, the below pilot applications will not be further updated. Many of these businesses will be continuing their efforts, progressing further with their capital assessments and continuing their journey in applying the capitals approach.
The results of the pilot applications have not been verified by Capitals Coalition, nor external consultants.
Summaries of select pilot applications are available below, accompanied by a link to a larger pilot application report.