National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO 14054:2025. It supersedes BS 8632:2021, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee SES/1/8.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 October 2025.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, Subcommittee SC 1, Environmental management systems.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

This document presents the terminology, principles, requirements and guidance used to prepare natural capital accounts to ensure the process is transparent, repeatable and generates information that is useful for decision-making.

By combining financial, environmental and socio-economic information, natural capital accounting reveals the value of nature to an organization or its value chain, and the rest of society, and the value of the impacts or dependencies on nature from an organization’s activities or those attributed to its value chain. Both market and non-market values are included in natural capital accounts, making the best use of qualitative, quantitative and monetary methods of measurement.

A natural capital account is prepared for internal use and can also be reported externally. Users of natural capital accounts can also identify the links to their financial accounts and disclosures.

The process of providing comprehensive and transparent information can help an organization:

identify its impacts and dependencies, and that of its value chain, on natural capital, and the associated risks and opportunities;
communicate information and implications within the organization and with external interested parties;
conduct scenario analysis to support strategy, risk management and operational decisions;
consider the options for investing in natural capital or to manage impacts and dependencies on natural capital;
monitor natural capital and the impacts or dependencies on nature from an organization’s activities or its value chain over time, including the effectiveness of the organization’s actions.

This document is intended to be used by those who will be preparing the natural capital accounts. These can be environmental and sustainability professionals, accountants, economists and others, with sufficient ecological, economic and other relevant knowledge, working in collaboration.

Natural capital accounts aim to provide information to managers of organizations, and interested parties such as investors, auditors, assurance and certification bodies, regulators, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, customers and the wider public. The process of preparing natural capital accounts can be as informative as the results presented in the natural capital accounts.

A group of organizations that depend on the same natural capital (e.g. natural capital in a specific location such as a water basin), or that are considering collaborating to change their impacts, may prepare joint natural capital accounts specific to the shared natural capital. The information used to create the natural capital accounts including their supporting schedules can come from different sources such as financial accounts, environmental management systems, environmental, social and governance analysis, and other economic, social and environmental analyses undertaken by the organization, or academic or official publications (e.g. national or subnational natural capital accounts) or grey literature.

This document foresees that the process for preparing natural capital accounts includes scope choices, data from different sources and of different quality, and assumptions. It requires that the process and results be documented transparently. The requirements of this document can also be a basis for auditing natural capital accounts.

1 Scope

This document provides terminology, principles, requirements and guidance for the preparation of natural capital accounts for organizations.

Natural capital accounts quantify the impacts from the organization’s activities on natural capital, or the dependencies of the organization on natural capital, or both.

The scope of natural capital accounts can be expanded to cover activities in the organization’s value chain.

There are two types of natural capital accounts, each with supporting schedules:

the natural capital income statement;
the natural capital balance sheet.

This document is applicable to all types of organizations (e.g. public, private (both listed and unlisted) or non-governmental organizations) across all sectors, and of any size (such as small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger businesses) and to one or more sites at which they operate.

This document does not apply to national, sub-national or sector-wide natural capital accounts.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms related to natural capital

3.2 Terms related to a natural capital account

3.3 Terms related to natural capital accounting

4 Principles

4.1 General

4.2 Rigour

4.3 Completeness

4.4 Consistency

4.5 Credibility

4.6 Relevance

4.7 Transparency

5 Process of preparing a natural capital account

5.1 General

5.2 Define the purpose of the natural capital accounting

5.3 Define the organization

5.4 Select the scope of the natural capital account

5.5 Select the type of natural capital account

5.6 Natural capital register

5.7 Undertake a materiality assessment

5.8 Identify interested parties and the extent of their involvement

6 Collect data and conduct data quality assessment

6.1 General

6.2 Attribution and apportionment

6.3 Monetary valuation

6.4 Discounting of monetary values

7 Natural capital income statement

7.1 General

7.2 Increases in natural capital and associated natural capital benefits

7.3 Decreases in natural capital and associated natural capital benefits

7.4 Completed natural capital income statement

8 Natural capital balance sheet

8.1 General

8.2 Natural capital risk register

8.3 Physical flow account

8.4 Monetary flow account

8.5 Cost schedules

8.6 Completed natural capital balance sheet

9 Documentation, interpretation and integration

9.1 Documentation

9.2 Interpretation

9.3 Integration

Bibliography

BS ISO 14054:2025

Natural capital accounting for organizations. Principles, requirements and guidance

Current

Published:

31 Oct 2025