Bringing Health and the Environment into Decision-Making: The Natural Capital Approach

Abstract

Planetary Health seeks to meet the health needs of present and future humans without compromising the natural systems on which that health depends1. To achieve this aim, society has to adopt a way of making decisions that not only considers their narrow financial costs and benefits, but also their broader effects on human health and the natural environment. Only by bringing all of these elements together can we both understand the financial drivers of business behaviour and the wider set of influences upon human wellbeing. The paper overviews the measures, often called ‘metrics’, available to governments and businesses to understand the health and environmental consequences of alternative decisions and investments. These metrics provide a scientific understanding of the wider effects of change. The paper then shows how these metrics can be brought into conventional economic decision making so they can be considered on a level playing field with other costs and benefits. This approach to understanding decisions from both a business and a wider social wellbeing perspective is commonly referred to as the Natural Capital Approach.