Few companies today account in their financial statements for the value of natural capital — resources such as clean water, tillable soil, breathable air and other resources that are often taken for granted or assumed to be free.

But if those costs were tallied globally, the liability would be considerably more than $1 trillion, according to a new index included in the sixth annual绿色业务状态报告于周二发布。与美国公司相关的自然资本成本约为3516亿美元。

格林比斯集团（Greenbiz Group）董事长兼执行编辑乔尔·麦克奥尔（Joel Makerower）在最近的格林比斯（Greenbiz）中说：“如果这里有一件事要带走，那是如果公司必须支付实际资本的实际费用，那么它将大大吞噬利润。”网络广播讨论发现。

该报告与研究公司合作生产Trucost，可能包括迄今为止汇编的自然资本影响最全面的指标之一。它将来自全球4,000多家公司的公司披露数据与排放或用水量等外部因素相结合，以计算相对于财务绩效的环境影响。

该指数提出了一个问题：“如果公司实际上必须为其对自然资本的影响付出代价，那么它将成本以及如何影响公司的盈利能力？”

Here's the answer: Total environmental costs as a percent of revenue are an average of 3.66 percent for U.S. companies and 3.76 percent for global firm.

但是，如果您查看底线，结果将更加令人担忧：对于美国公司而言，环境成本约为净收入的41％，而用于研究的全球公司为52％。

"If you had to actually pay for air pollution or pay for water as it relates to its scarcity, it would have a very significant impact," said Richard Mattison, Trucost CEO, during the GreenBiz webcast.

有什么风险

可能改变重要事项的一个发展是自然资本声明2012年9月由39家全球金融机构签署，呼吁将这些考虑因素整合到金融决策中。例如，将来可能需要企业披露其对水质，水土侵蚀或防洪的影响，以便获得贷款。

联合国环境计划Achim Steiner说：“将资本纳入底线是要将地球的真正财富从无形的范围带入可见的光谱中，以使从退化到社区，企业和国家的可持续管理的平衡。”宣布该声明时，执行董事和副部长。

某些行业比其他行业对自然资本成本更直接控制。根据新的绿色业务报告中的研究，例如，化学药品，公用事业和石油和天然气公司负责大部分影响。其他领域，例如食品和饮料，金融和服务以及电信将通过供应链合作伙伴显示其大部分影响。

One area where disclosure will play an increasingly critical role relates to water consumption, said Mattison. In most regions, the price of water is out of sync with its actual scarcity, despite a growing focus on conservation by many of the companies considered in the new report.

如果您查看水强度（美国每百万美元的美国收入中使用的立方米水）实际上看起来不错：美国公司在2007年至2011年之间平均将其强度降低了17％，而全球公司则管理着15％减少。

但是，从绝对的角度来看，在此时间范围内，公司并没有大大减少其水足迹。

Mattison说：“生态系统对绝对的反应，而不是相对影响。”“从绝对的角度来看，用水没有改变。”

照片树provided by布鲁斯·罗夫（Bruce Rolff）/shutterstock

Certainly, the flagrant misuse of natural capital represents a significant risk. Mattison cites the example of China's excessive clear-cutting timber harvest policies, which decimated its forests and completed disrupted the water cycle there. The ripple effect was enormous, with an estimated $30 billion in losses to its gross domestic product in a single year after the黄河干燥。

A more recent example of the potential impact centers on the Mississippi River, in the form of dredging operations that have been necessary to keep the waterway open during the historic U.S. drought this year.

但是，聪明的公司还可以利用其自然资本曝光的知识来做出明智的决定，使他们在竞争中保持领先地位。Mattison以食品公司为例，以详细的可见性对水短缺趋势进行了锁定，以完全锁定来自世界另一个地区的未来供应。

This isn't just a good idea from the planet's point of view; it could also help that company keep its costs lower than those of the competition.

玛蒂森说：“使用大量自然资本可以使企业准备以尽可能高效的方式满足需求。”

有关拥抱自然资本会计的含义的更多信息，请观看这​​个Greenbizvideowith Makower and Mattison.