The carrying capacities of capitals

Perhaps the single most important feature of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC）综合报告的建议标准是基于资本。这是一种预测的，也就是说，鉴于这种首都对人/利益相关者的福祉的重要性，组织绩效（金融和非财务状况）都是公司对重要首都的影响的函数。

确实，绩效是对重要首都的影响的函数的事实，可以说是可持续性中争议的最小主张竞彩足球app怎么下载literature, and is all but taken for granted in financial management. Financial performance, that is, is a function of an organization’s impacts on financial capital, and non-financial performance is a function of its impacts on natural, human, social, constructed (or built) and intellectual capitals. The latter, intellectual capital, is sometimes embedded in the preceding three.

重要的是，另一个新兴标准是全球可持续性评级倡议（竞彩足球app怎么下载GISR), is also capital-based. It, too, is predicated on the view that sustainability performance is a function of impacts on vital capitals.

听取IIRC和GISR在此问题上的立场：

“An integrated report should answer the following questions: ...Performance：该组织在多大程度上实现了其战略目标，以及在对首都的影响方面的结果。”（IIRCConsultation Draft, April 2013)

“As a global, multistakeholder initiative, [GISR’s] vision is to transform the definition of corporate value in the 21st century such that markets reward the preservation and enhancement of all forms of capital – human, financial, intellectual, natural and social.” (GISRExposure Draft, February 2013)

Both standards deserve to be supported in the strongest possible terms, if only because of their grounding in capital theory. Impacts on capitals — in light of the role they play in human/stakeholder well-being — determine an organization’s real performance. Performance measurement, reporting and rating systems should be constructed accordingly.

全球报告倡议（格里），因为它在这个问题上是严重落后的，即使不是故意不屑一顾。在最近发布的可持续性报告的更新中竞彩足球app怎么下载准则(G4), the主张that GRI add a focus on capital impacts as a requirement for reporting was拒绝. Sadly, this portends another five or six years of dubious — yet still格里-compliant- 报告，因为没有评估对重要首都的影响的评估，就无法完成可持续性报告。竞彩足球app怎么下载

To be clear, neither the IIRC nor the GISR speak in terms of thecarrying capacities重要的首都 - 无论如何还没有。但是，原则上，包括资本和流量具有携带能力的想法对于基于资本的绩效观点至关重要，因为对首都的影响可以提高或降低此类首都的质量或充分性的事实正是什么使它们相关。确实，人类的福祉取决于他们。

图像Vectomartvia Shutterstock

It is not enough, then, to simply say that an organization’s operations have had impact on water resources (a type of natural capital); rather, the question must be:它的影响是否降低了此类资源在确保人类（和非人类）幸福感所需的水平上的质量或充分性？Assuming we can allocate shares of natural resources to specific organizations – which we能够– actual use then can be compared to such allocations as a basis for assessing performance. The concept of carrying capacity provides us with just the kind of measurement model we need to perform such calculations.

读者已经熟悉承载能力的概念可能是最习惯的，也许是看到以下生态形式的表述：

“The amount of biomass that can be supported [by an ecosystem] is termed [its]maximum carrying capacity.” (Odum, 1983)

但是，在可持续竞彩足球app怎么下载性文献中，该术语有时以倒置的意义使用（例如，参见Wackernagel和Rees，1996年）。我们可以将承载能力作为支持人口所需的环境或资本库存的规模，而不是提及环境可以支持的人口规模。这表明某些首都实际上是人为的想法：人类创造它们，甚至可以在需要时创建更多的人（即，它们是anthro capitals).

This latter interpretation of carrying capacity makes the concept applicable to non-natural/ecological capitals. A healthcare system, for example — a blend of financial, human, social, constructed and intellectual capitals — will have a carrying capacity measured in terms of the number of health care transactions or patients it can support. The same will be true for schools and students, governments and public services, courts and crimes, etc. Hospitals, schools, governments and judicial systems are all composed of anthro capitals with carrying capacities that we can measure, manage and report.

这里的重点是，对于非天然首都，可以将绩效视为人口如何满足需求的函数produce首都，不只是养护或者维持他们。组织也可以通过这样的术语进行评估，但只有在对他们应该或没有首先拥有的重要首都的影响方面，这是确定资本理论也支持的重要性的重要部分。

当然，最好是根据组织的绩效（即，由IIRC，GISR和GRI控制的标准）明确表示，以衡量，报告和评估的标准是根据carrying capacities of capitals; but simply acknowledging impacts on capitals as being germane to the subject will have to do for now. The fact that the very idea of对首都的影响is about to be formally incorporated in at least two major standards (IIRC and GISR) is, itself, a welcome development. At the very least, it will help make it possible for anyone interested in assessing the true (capital-based) performance of organizations to do so for the very first time.

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Readers interested in learning more about the history and evolution of the idea of carrying capacity will find a fascinating article on the subject written by Nathan Sayre,携带能力的起源，历史和限制（2008年），他写道：

“Carrying capacity may be the most versatile and widely popularized concept in environmental politics today. Like sustainability – which it predates and in many ways anticipates – carrying capacity can be applied to almost any human-environment interaction, at any scale, and it has the additional advantage of conveying a sense of calculability and precision – something that sustainability thus far lacks.”

Information about an approach to sustainability management that does, in fact, take the carrying capacities of capitals explicitly into account can be found这里.

图像Vectomart通过shutterstock。