We acknowledge that a healthy environment is fundamental for supporting biodiversity, human wellbeing and economic prosperity for all people. Valuing nature is a central pillar of our Company-wide biodiversity and water stewardship strategies, and the development of natural capital accounts is a key metric under our 2030 Healthy Environment goal.  

As we set out to value nature, there is an opportunity (and need) for clarity on what nature-related data to collect and why. We have an opportunity to design natural capital data development to help support BHP’s understanding and management of nature, including (for example) tracking outcomes from responsible land management practices, and responding to any future mandatory nature-related risk management and disclosure requirements that are expected to emerge from initiatives such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). 

Phil Cryle, BHP Principal Natural Capital, said a key insight from the exploratory natural capital accounting work at Beenup and Olympic Dam is that that there are multiple ways to measure or ‘account’ for nature.  

“The range of global nature-related reporting, disclosure, accounting and risk management frameworks can cause confusion and uncertainty for those wanting to develop nature-related information. We identified the opportunity (and need) to provide clarity on what nature-related data to collect, and developed a natural capital metrics framework in response.” 

The natural capital metrics framework synthesises the requirements of global nature-related frameworks. It uses the broad structure set out in the CSIRO Natural Capital Handbook to ensure comprehensive coverage across nature-related issues, providing specific guidance on the classifications and metrics for data collection for each nature-related issue, in line with emerging global best practice. 

Mischa Traynor, BHP Vice-President Environment, said the value of nature cannot be reduced to a single metric.

“We need a credible framework that enables us to understand and manage natural assets for the environmental, social, cultural and economic values they can support. The natural capital metrics framework provides a structured way to guide our development of data in alignment with emerging global nature-related frameworks.  

Importantly, its flexibility means that we can tailor our data development to the specific local context, enabling us to focus on what is most material and useful to support good decision-making at a particular location.” 

The framework’s application was tested at Olympic Dam, demonstrating its effectiveness in systematically guiding data compilation in alignment with global nature-related frameworks. It also showed that we already collect a reasonable portion of the required nature-related information.  

A technical peer review by CSIRO, available here, found the framework: 

• aligns well with widely accepted standards and principles for natural capital accounting and assessment 
• represents a well-considered framework for operationalising natural capital accounting standards and principles within our organisation and others 
• may help to reduce the risk of our transition into natural capital accounting by improving clarity on the required indicators within a framework aligned with international reporting, disclosure, accounting and risk management standards  
• advances existing guidance materials by developing a workflow and testing it at Olympic Dam  

Phil Cryle added that CSIRO’s review provides us with confidence in our intended use of the metrics framework to guide the development of BHP’s natural capital accounts to FY2030, which will inform and help demonstrate BHP’s stewardship of natural capital assets over time.  

More information  

Read the Natural capital accounting for the mining sector: Beenup site pilot case study here. 

The Beenup and Olympic Dam case studies were published here as part of a broader project led by Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TiME) and CSIRO, with input from the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and other CRC TiME partners. This project contributed to a suite of new resources that were released to support the mining industry in adopting natural capital accounts. You can read more about them here.