The University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has today (15 October) launched a video and online game to help businesses understand how they can reduce their environmental impact on a set budget.

Launched in an attempt to ‘demystify’ natural capital valuation, the tools seek to help businesses identify changes in the environment resulting from the activities of their company and the effect these changes have on the welfare of others who depend on the same environmental resources.

The video (which can be viewed below), briefly explains natural capital valuation, and why it is necessary to business practice, while the interactive game offers businesses the opportunity to see the impact their actions may have on the environment and society.

E.Valu.A.Te: the Game

Developed by the CISL industry group the Natural Capital Leaders Platform, the E.Valu.A.Te (Externality Valuation Assessment Tool) game sets players the challenge of reducing their business’s environmental impacts and risks, improving human wellbeing, boosting their business’s reputation and creating value, all while staying within a fixed budget.

For example, a player might be set a budget of £100,000. The game will then provide the player with a range of actions the business can take to tackle climate change, water quality, water quantity, soil quality, and wild species diversity (i.e. applying fertiliser on crops more efficiently to counter climate change), and highlight the cost of the action, and the impact improvements the action will trigger. The player can then select a range of actions to take to try and improve the business’s environmental and societal impact.

Once the budget has been exhausted, the player will be shown how much value his or her actions created and any areas that may still be at risk. The user will then be offered the chance to play the game again to improve his or her score and consider different trade-off options.

It is hoped that the game will demonstrate how businesses can reduce regulatory, market, operational, and reputation risk through their actions, while understanding the value created.

‘An innovative and fun approach to an important but poorly-understood subject’

CISL’s Dr Gemma Cranston explained: “This is an innovative and fun approach to an important but poorly-understood subject. Our current economic systems do not value things like clean air and water properly, which is short-sighted because society depends on them in the long term.

“This interactive, online game will help businesses engage with natural capital valuation, and discover how they can use it to manage risk and reduce their environmental impact.”

Chris Brett, Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Olam – one of the members of The Cambridge Natural Capital Leaders Platform – added: “Businesses are becoming increasingly accountable for the pressures we put on nature. Communicating the need to value these impacts is not always an easy task. E.Valu.A.Te: the Game is a great introductory tool.”

Resource readers can view a preview of the game below until 17 October.

The game can also be accessed via the CISL website.