Advancing the valuation of nature: BHP’s first operated asset natural capital baseline and accounting approach

We recognise that a healthy environment is fundamental to biodiversity, human wellbeing and long‑term economic prosperity. Valuing nature is a core pillar of our biodiversity and water stewardship strategies, with the development of natural capital accounts identified as one of the metrics supporting our 2030 Healthy environment pillar of our social value framework. 

During FY2026, we progressed two key initiatives to further develop and test our natural capital accounting approach. We delivered our first preliminary baseline natural capital account at BMA and developed documentation that describes our approach to natural capital accounting and assessment. 

BMA’s natural capital account 

The BMA account represents a preliminary baseline account developed with reference to recognised natural capital accounting approaches. The account is intended to support internal testing, learning and continuous improvement as the application of natural capital information in business decision-making continues to evolve.  

A range of internal use cases were explored to better understand how natural capital information may support business decision‑making. 

Sonia Winter, BMA GM Planning Technical & Environment, noted that the development of the account reflects progress in BHP’s approach to valuing nature: 

“The natural capital account at BMA was developed during the year to help support internal capability building and organisational learning. Use cases were explored to better understand how natural capital information might inform future business decision‑making.” 

Phil Cryle, BHP Principal Natural Capital, added that the BMA account represents a preliminary baseline: 

“The BMA Natural Capital Account represents a baseline for 2024, or the closest available year based on data availability. Consistent with the evolving nature of natural capital accounting methodologies and standards, the account will support ongoing learning and the continued refinement of BHP's approach”. 

BHP’s natural capital workflow 

In parallel, during FY2026 we developed supporting documentation in collaboration with CSIRO to publish documentation describing BHP's approach to natural capital accounting and assessment. This includes a natural capital workflow explainer and an accompanying technical workbook. 

Phil Cryle said: 

“The documentation developed with CSIRO sets out our existing approach to natural capital accounting and assessment, including the workflow and framework structure used, and illustrates how it can be applied through a hypothetical worked example to support transparency and learning for others.” 

This work is underpinned by BHP’s natural capital metrics framework, which was independently peer‑reviewed by CSIRO in FY2025. The review can be found here. 

The CSIRO review found that “...the Natural Capital Metrics Framework (NCMF) aligns well with widely accepted Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) standards and principles and is a good means of operationalising those NCA standards and principles into guiding BHP and other organisations in the adoption and uptake of natural capital accounting and assessment.”  

The review supports the ongoing application of the framework in developing BHP's natural capital accounts through to FY2030. 

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.