About Natural Capital Awards

an initiative endorsed by September 4, 2013, New Delhi A Compendium About Natural Capital Awards We're always planning for the future. As the species that's able to 'think', we're securing our homes and our children's future. In the process, sometimes we forget that the resources we need to truly protect are the ones that we seem to ignore: water, air, flora, fauna, and soil. To truly acknowledge the link between natural resource consumption and economic development, conserving and protecting these resources is imperative. However, we only seem to appreciate and nurture an asset once we have assigned a monetary value to it. 'Natural Capital', simply put, is the economic value of nature. Therefore, calculations must take into consideration the intangibles, such as boundless beauty, as well as the tangibles, such as the cost per unit of a natural resource. The YES BANK-Saevus Natural Capital Awards programme will endeavour to find, reward and showcase the finest natural capitalists of India, comprising individuals, groups and corporations that are dedicated towards spearheading biodiversity growth and environmental stewardship. The eminent jury panel for the awards comprises legendary Indian naturalists, photographers and environmentalists who have contributed in building natural capital. The Logo Inspiration The design of the logo is inspired by the symbol of infinity. It is representative of the continuous cycle of nature and natural capital. The continuum symbolizes the importance of the sustainable use of our resources in order to preserve and balance the reserve of natural resources for future generations. The upper section of the logo contains coloured strands that represent the 4 elements of nature – Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, which form the building blocks of our ecosystem and maintain its balance. These strands come together and blend into a green money plant leaf in the lower half of the logo. The logo is symbolic of wealth generation and the preservation of capital, aligned to YES BANK's brand identity. Key Partners Event endorsed by Knowledge Partner Chamber Partner Message YES BANK, India's fourth largest private sector bank, and Saevus magazine jointly organised the YES BANK-Saevus Natural Capital Awards-a unique platform that has identified individuals and corporations that have made ecological preservation and conservation their utmost priority. Wildlife and nature photography serves as an important art to showcase the marvel of biodiversity. The grandeur, beauty, intelligence and interdependencies of ecosystems are highlighted through thought provoking photographs and visual storytelling, that serve as an inspiration for individuals Rana Kapoor and corporations to position nature preservation at the forefront of their decision-making processes. The key differentiator of the YES BANK-Saevus Natural Capital Awards is its emphasis on showcasing the intangible value of nature through visual imagery and natural history documentation, highlighting the important role it plays in informing humanity of its place in the biosphere. A study conducted by the Club of Rome titled, 'Limits to Growth', clearly highlights the eventuality of resource scarcity, whereby the earth's capacity to provide natural resources and fuel economic growth will diminish. The expanding economies of the BRIC nations over the past two decades have added more weight to this argument, where energy, food and water security have been determined as priorities to ensure the sustainability of economic growth. Often excluded from corporate balance sheets are the environmental costs of doing business, whereby corporations undertake extensive natural capital accounting to determine their impact on the ecology. To fill this gap, we believe country specific natural capital accounting frameworks need to be developed both at the individual and corporate level. Our take on 'Natural Capital' is therefore two fold, where we believe individuals and Corporations have significant, and at times, interdependent roles to play to ensure a natural resource conscious future. I strongly encourage you to be a part of this movement to ensure that our future generations inherit an abundant and ecologically rich planet. This important initiative of YES BANK is in line with the new CSR provisions under Companies Bill, 2012 that encourages organisations to focus on integrating their business models with social and environmental priorities to create shared value. Thank you. Rana Kapoor Managing Director & CEO Address by Key Speakers Climate change caused by global warming is no longer an esoteric topic of discussion in industry department and meteorological departments in universities around the world. It is perhaps the most uniquely compelling challenge of human history. Today humanity threatens to destroy not only just itself by ruthless and selfish actions but also threatens to irrevocably alter the Dr. Shashi Tharoor course of whole life on earth. Chief Guest In fact Vedic philosophy for instance recognized five elements land, water, fire Hon’ble Minister of State for air and sky as panchbhootas for performing yagna or worship and today we do Human Resource Development not think twice about polluting all these five elements with our greed and ignorance. In more contemporary Indian history we have the example of Gandhiji who among many other things was a staunch environmentalist; he drew inspiration from profound Hindu tradition of trusteeship and he was influenced by the Upanishads when he said “the country's development has to be in harmony with nature. Each member of the community has to live in harmony with the nature” The government of India is committed to improving community system and we have even divided the governance of Natural Capital to Panchayati Raj institutions. The Indian principle of 'Jugaad' needs to be institutionalized in a way to think out of the box think creatively and bring nontraditional solutions to traditional issues. Another area where the government is playing its part is by improving environmental education in our institutions of R&D. While we progress it's important to create better research facilities too which will help us contain our carbon footprint. I understand that YES BANK is signing Natural Capital Declaration which was convened by the global canopy programme and the UNEP FI. Its heartening to see the wider support for the declaration as the supporting organization will bring with them a range of expertise and interests of stake holders will get aligned towards ensuring environmentally sustainable growth. I would start by quoting Gandhi “we may utilize the gifts of nature just as we choose but in our books the debits are always equal to credits”. The crux of the problem for time immemorial is that we have been running the debits without estimating them and this is a result of our sheer ignorance. Now fortunately we have the science and knowledge to assess it. Dr. R. K. Pachauri Guest of Honor An assessment done by us, we came up with the result that if the temperatures go Director General, TERI up by 1.5 to 2.5 degree more then 20 – 30 % of the species will face the threat of extinction. This will result into innumerable health risks and will also affect the yield and output. It will also have serious implication for business as it will result in the increase of frequency and intensity of heat waves. Heat waves that take place once in twenty years will become once in two years by the end of this century. So this will lead to drop in productivity like in France in the year 2003 when 4000 people died due to it. So business will suffer because of it. How we can play our part is by using Natural Resources more efficiently. What we need is a new matrix, a new direction as Gandhi rightly said “The speed is irrelevant if you are going in the wrong direction”. I would end by quoting Gandhi, again when asked once about “what do you think of wildlife”, he replied that “it's getting reduced in the jungle but is increasing in the cities”. Interaction of Natural Capital in Business, especially in the Financial Institutions is a new practice and is not very well understood. YES BANK is the first bank in India to sign up the Natural Capital declaration which was launched last year at the Rio Earth Summit and has only 40 members, I think they are all grappling with the same issues. Financial Institutions are often described as the blood supply of the economy as they determine where the money goes. So Financial Yuki Yasui Institutions are the key stakeholder to make a shift to sustainable growth. Officer-in-Charge, UNEP-FI Address by Key Speakers The direct carbon footprint of the bank is the electricity that they consume but by giving loans their carbon footprint is much larger The implementing of Natural Capital Declaration will be fraught with a lot of technical difficulties but YES BANK is approaching it as a collaborative effort first with the Financial Institutions and second with the customers and the stakeholders in India and abroad. The more we can create shared understanding of the value of Natural Capital the quicker the innovation will follow. We are holding a conference in Beijing In October which will also see participation of YES BANK, about what Financial Institutions and regulators can do to shift financial flows towards sustainable development especially emerging markets like India, China and Brazil. Natural Capital Awards is a path breaking initiative. The very fact that this award is being given on Natural Capital is something that makes these awards different than, all the other awards. The edifice for development are two types of capital, Human Capital and Natural Suresh Prabhu Capital. The growth of a nation depends on Natural Capital. Unfortunately we do Former Union Minister not take into account Natural Capital in GDP growth; we only take into for Environment & Forests account Financial Capital.

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