The Natural Capital Data and Analytics Platform: Transforming Sustainability Decisions at Scale

Team: Gretchen Daily, Lisa Mandle, Khalid Osman, Elliott White, Abby King, Giulio De Leo, and Jim Leape

Our economic systems have a fatal flaw in being blind to the values of nature. This project sets out to help fix that flaw before it kills us. Earth’s natural capital—its lands, waters, and biodiversity—are vital for human well-being and prosperity. Yet, because it has not been adequately valued or factored into decision making, natural capital is being rapidly degraded, threatening Earth’s life-support systems. This is beginning to change, with inspiring demonstrations of valuing nature in a suite of countries worldwide. Yet scaling success is limited by poor access to user-friendly tools for understanding natural capital stocks, flows, and values under alternative scenarios and decisions for the future. This project aims to enhance the InVEST® software, the leading tool used in more than 185 countries to analyze natural capital, by creating an integrated platform with APIs, web maps, visualizations, and other advances to lower barriers to making data actionable and relevant. The platform will support decisions in sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, mitigation and resilience, and public health—integrating the nature and climate agendas, and benefiting half of the world’s ecosystems within 10 years and billions of people through improved policy, investment, and nature-based solutions.