MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative to Host National Capital Protocol Toolkit on SHIFT Platform

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Companies committed to preserving and regenerating the natural resources they rely upon to conduct business now have new tools at their disposal with the transfer of the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit (NCT) to the SHIFT.tools platform created and hosted by the MIT Sloan School of Management's Sustainability Initiative.

The idea of natural capital is that there is hidden wealth in the healthy functioning of natural systems. For instance, water is essential for thermal power plants to produce steam for generating electricity; real estate developers benefit from preserving coastal wetlands, which lessen storm surges; and agribusiness needs biodiversity to ensure pollination of crops.

The Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit offers companies a structured process through which they can identify the key business risks and opportunities in the way they manage natural resources and infrastructure.

MIT Sloan's SHIFT.tools is an online collaborative platform that allows users to navigate a broad array of sustainability resources as well as curate, rate and review tools based on their own experiences. With the addition of the tools from the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit, SHIFT aims to highlight the most practical, valuable and generally-accepted corporate impact assessment methods.

"This is a bold step towards driving convergence of measurement and valuation tools," says Eva Zabey, Director of Redefining Value at World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which spearheaded the creation of the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit. "Through these efforts with MIT and the SHIFT.tools platform, we're hoping to reduce confusion and competition between similar online platforms. I encourage other organizations, resource and toolkit platforms to consider joining in."

"Harmonizing information, platforms and tools is essential to accelerate natural capital thinking," says Mark Gough, Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition. "The integration of the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit into the SHIFT.tools platform is therefore an obvious and exciting step for us to take to ensure that we are simplifying the landscape and supporting organizations as they seek to make better decisions by understanding their relationships with nature."

A growing number of case studies on natural capital provide evidence to show that companies are increasingly trying to better manage their impact and dependencies on natural capital. The Natural Capital Toolkit serves as an interactive database of tools that help companies implement the Natural Capital Protocol. The toolkit is regularly updated to reflect new and updated tools as available and allows users to search the tools that are applicable to them.

"The urgency for action on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals means that we don't have time for reinventing the wheel," says Jason Jay, Senior Lecturer and Director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative. "SHIFT.tools is an attempt to accelerate business efforts on sustainability by connecting people with information, frameworks, and tools that help them move their organizations forward. Bringing the Natural Capital Protocol Toolkit onboard is a significant expansion of the platform's content and capabilities, and we are fortunate to be working with WBCSD and the Natural Capital Coalition, leading organizations in the sustainability field."

With this transfer, the toolkit will no longer be available on the Natural Capital Toolkit website. Users will be redirected to the SHIFT.tools platform at https://shift.tools/nct.

For more information, please contact Jason Jay at jjay@mit.edu.

The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world.

About the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative
The MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative seeks to deliver the best education, connect academic rigor to real world practice, and empower leaders everywhere to take action, professionally and personally, so that humans and nature can thrive for generations to come. We engage hundreds of students at MIT every year and thousands around the world through our online tools. We seek to propel the growth of the sustainable business field and achievement of bold global goals, by ensuring that policy and action are built upon a foundation of rigor and discipline.  

About the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
WBCSD is a global, CEO-led organization of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world. We help make our member companies more successful and sustainable by focusing on the maximum positive impact for shareholders, the environment and societies.

Our member companies come from all business sectors and all major economies, representing a combined revenue of more than USD $8.5 trillion and 19 million employees. Our global network of almost 70 national business councils gives our members unparalleled reach across the globe. WBCSD is uniquely positioned to work with member companies along and across value chains to deliver impactful business solutions to the most challenging sustainability issues.

Together, we are the leading voice of business for sustainability: united by our vision of a world where more than 9 billion people are all living well and within the boundaries of our planet, by 2050.

About the Natural Capital Coalition
The Natural Capital Coalition is a global multi-stakeholder collaboration that brings together leading initiatives and organizations to harmonize natural capital approaches. The Coalition works to achieve the vision of a world that values, conserves and enhances natural capital. The Coalition is home to the Natural Capital Protocol, the internationally standardized decision making framework for the identification, measurement and valuation of natural capital impacts and dependencies.

SOURCE MIT Sloan School of Management