FGV EAESP

The Trends in Ecosystem Services (TeSE) business initiative was launched in 2013 by the Center for Sus¬tainability Studies of Sao Paulo Business Administration School at Getulio Vargas Foundation (GVces/ EAESP-FGV), with the mission of supporting the Brazilian business sector in the incorporation of natural capital into business decision-making. Since then, TeSE has been developing, through a process of joint construction with its member companies, tools aimed at quantification, economic and non-economic valuation, and reporting dependencies, impacts and externalities with regard to ecosystem services. 

From 2014 to 2016, the initiative published 28 business cases from the implementation of the Corporate Guidelines for the Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services (DEVESE 2.0) and its respective calculation tool; and two pilot-cases of ecosystem services business management. In 2017, nine new business cases of economic valuation of ecosystem services were developed and are described in this publication. This cycle also included the development of the first pilot-project for noneconomic valuation of cultural ecosystem services, based on the Corporate Guidelines for noneconomic valuation of Cultural Ecosystem Services (DESEC 1.0). 

These cases contribute to creating a set of references to the application of ecosystem services valuation in the business environment and for the diagnosis of opportunities for improvement of DEVESE and its calculation tool, both TeSE commitments. Motivated by the challenges and learnings of the cases developed by the companies participating in the initiative, in 2017, two Technical Note were produced, addressing the implementation of DEVESE and its calculation tool for the ecosystem service of global climate regulation and the application of DEVESE and DESEC for hydroelectric plants. 

The report on the results of business cases has been made, since 2015, through the “form for reporting dependencies, impacts and environmental externalities”, inspired by the Corporate Guidelines for Environmental Externalities Report (DEREA). It has been enhanced to be in accordance with the Natural Capital Protocol, a framework designed to assist the business sector in measuring and assessing their dependencies and impacts on natural capital. This form serves as a guideline for organizations to develop a clear an objective report of its estimates of economic value of dependencies, impacts and environ¬mental externalities. The content on the form is self-declared by the companies, each case indicating the person responsible for the information reported. 

This publication does not provide details of the data and calculation used, given the complexity and strategic nature of some of the information used by the companies, but it fulfills its objective of dissem¬inating the theme, exemplifying some of the risks and opportunities derived from ecosystem services related to business. Details on the type of data and methodological procedures required for these analyzes can be obtained directly from DEVESE and its calculation tool.