Before building your Environmental Account, there are several resources available to help you. For a step by step guide please see the Environmental Account Development & Certification Rules: The 5-Step process for Environmental Account development, certification and maintenance.

TRAINING

Accounting for Nature® has developed an online training course that walks you through Environmental Accounting and how to build a Certifiable Environmental Account. The course is suited for various stakeholders, including landholders, environmental practitioners, the corporate sector, and policymakers. Accounting for Nature® requires at least one person on the Environmental Account team to have completed the entire course. For questions about our online training course, contact us at training@accouontingfornature.org or sign up for a free preview via our Training Centre.

Workshops, training packages and technical assistance

AfN offers workshops and training packages tailored to our customer’s needs. Customised training workshops can be delivered as half-day, full-day, or multi-day, online or face-to-face events. AfN also offers on-demand technical assistance for Environmental Account development. For more information on these resources, please fill out the expression of interest or contact us at training@accountingfornature.org.

EXPERTS

When designing and building an Environmental Account, you may choose to engage an Accredited Expert. Under the Accounting for Nature® Framework, there are two types of Accredited Experts:

Asset Experts have specific scientific expertise, including experience in data collection and field assessments within their respective field/s (i.e. native vegetation, fauna, soil, water, marine etc.).

General Experts have relevant environmental or sustainability accounting skills. These experts may require the support of an Asset Expert where Methods require specialist scientific expertise.

All Experts have the capacity to lead the development of an Environmental Account.

Find an Accredited Expert through our Expert Directory.

FEES

It is important to consult the Fee Schedule to understand the fees involved in developing an Environmental Account. We are a not-for-profit organisation. All fees are charged on a cost-recovery basis.

This is the first step in your Environmental Account journey. It requires you to identify the Purpose, Scope, and Method(s) that will be included in the account.

Defining the Purpose of the Environment Account is the first and one of the most critical steps of the account creation process, as it informs all other decisions surrounding the account.

Things to consider when defining the Purpose are:

• Who is the target audience of the account?

• What decisions are the Environmental Account intended to inform?

Defining the Scope of the account includes considering what information is important to the Purpose of the account. This includes considering:

• The spatial boundary of the account.

• What Environmental Assets should be included (a Materiality Assessment should support this)

• What reporting timeframe is most appropriate (noting we require a minimum frequency of 5 years)

For guidance on defining the Scope of your Environmental Account please refer to the Environmental Account Rules and the Materiality Guidelines.

Next, you need to decide what Method(s) to use to measure the Condition of your chosen Assets. You can choose from existing Method(s) or create a new Method(s) if those available aren’t fit for your purpose.

Methods

The selected Method(s) will explain how to stratify your accounting area, what Indicators to measure, how to conduct field sampling or data processing, and how Reference Benchmark data is determined.

Each Method provides clear instructions on how to build your Environmental Account and lists required outputs at the end of each step. It’s important to remember that the output data from each step may be required as a part of the Registration or Certification approval.

Contact an Accredited Expert should you need guidance or assistance implementing the selected Method(s).

For help with understanding and determining Reference Benchmarks, Accuracy Levels, Setting Condition Targets or how to use historic data in your Environmental Account check out our Environmental Account Rules and Method Rules.

You can view current Accredited Methods via our Method Catalogue.

The second step in the five-step process is registering your Environmental Account with Accounting for Nature®. This step acts as a checkpoint where we can confirm you are on the right track. After successful registration, your project is entered into the public Environmental Account Registry.

We strongly advise you to Register your Asset Account(s) before commencing fieldwork data collection where possible.

Environmental Accounts can be registered either as private or public. Notably, a private Environmental Account does not permit the Account holder to share any information about the Account other than for internal, peer-to-peer, business-to-business confidential purposes.

To register your Environmental Account, you must submit a completed Environmental Account Registration Form and supporting documents such as the Environmental Account details, a map of the accounting area, Assessment Units, and sampling plan, as well as an overview of the relevant reference benchmark source. If the Account has more than one Environmental Asset, please complete the Additional Asset Registration Form on the same webpage. We will also ask for your company logo and a photo of your property or Environmental Account area, which will be used for the Environmental Account Registry.

ACCOUNT REGISTRATION FORM

Some Environmental Accounts may fall within a Portfolio. A Portfolio is where multiple separate Environmental Accounts that are individually registered are grouped under the management of a single entity, the ‘Portfolio Administrator’. To register a Portfolio, submit the Portfolio Registration Form and supporting documents.

PORTFOLIO REGISTRATION FORM

In signing the registration form, you agree to the terms and conditions set out in the Data License Agreement.

DATA LICENCE AGREEMENT

Register your Environmental Account online. Contact us with any questions.

Once an Environmental Account has been registered, it is time to collect and compile the data to calculate the Econd® and, where applicable, the Pcond.

Data collection must be done in accordance with the selected Method(s). Each Method provides instructions on what to measure and how to measure it to understand the condition of the Environmental Asset.

Remember: for an Environmental Account to be Certified by Accounting for Nature®, it must use robust and unbiased data to measure the condition of Environmental Assets and adhere to the data requirements outlined in the applicable Method(s).

Indicator Condition Scores (ICS) are calculated for each Indicator by applying Method-specific formulas.

Calculate Econd® (and Pcond) in accordance with the Method. This typically involves aggregating the ICS and applying an area weighting factor.

Spreadsheet template for calculating the ICS and Econd® or Pcond are available for most Methods on request.

Once you’ve calculated your first Econd®, you may choose to set a Condition Target for your Environmental Assets. Condition Target(s) are optional and are used to describe a particular Environmental Asset's intended or desired condition. The ‘target condition’ might be the same as the reference condition, where the goal is to restore an asset to its original state. On productive lands, the condition target often represents the most realistically attainable condition considering the context, costs, and production demands on the land. Please refer to the Environmental Account Rules for further information en setting Condition Targets for further information.

Each Asset Account produces a Technical Report (previously known as the Information Statement) specifically designed for the respective asset. Accounting for Nature has a standardised template for these reports. The template is provided to Account Holders through an online portal at time of registration confirmation.

The build stage may be iterative, with data from the field informing decisions as you progress to Certification. If significant amendments are required to the registered account (such as a change in the Method(s) selected), a Project Registration Amendment Form should be submitted to update the registration details.

Following the specific Method(S), once all the data has been collected, you are ready to start preparing the relevant account documentation for submission to us for Certification.

Certification pathways

Accounting for Nature® provides two pathways for users to certify their Environmental Accounts. Proponents should consult the Accounting for Nature® Audit Rules to understand what Certification pathway is most suited to the intended use of the Environmental Account.

Certified - Independent Audit

If you seek to have your account Certified - Independent Audit, you will need to engage an Accounting for Nature® Accredited Auditor to obtain either a limited or reasonable Assurance Audit for the associated Environmental Account and the public Claims it is being used to support.

An Assurance Engagement involves a Proponent engaging an Accredited Auditor to provide an independent conclusion as to the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the matters being audited.

Certified - AfN Verified

If you seek to have your account Certified - AfN Verified, then you will need to supply a Technical Assessment Application along with the Environmental Account and Information Statement to AfN for Technical Assessment against certification criteria in the Standard and the Method-specific criteria to confirm that the Account is compliant.

To be eligible for Certification, the following account documentation is required:

✔ Completed Technical Report for each Asset Account (formerly the Information Statement)

✔ Environmental Account Data

✔ Independent Audit Report OR AfN Verification Report

✔ Certification Application Form (which includes the Compliance and Good Faith Statement)

To submit your completed Environmental Account for Certification, complete the online Environmental Account Certification Application Form.

Our team will review the Account and, if eligible, Certify the Account as Certified - Independent Audit or Certified - AfN Verified, depending on the Certification Pathway. The review includes the following steps:

1. We will assess the Environmental Account against the Certification Criteria set out in the Standard and the Asset Accounts against the Method-specific Criteria.

2. When your Environmental Account is successfully Certified, you will be required to sign a Certification License Agreement and pay the initial Trustmark Licence fee. Depending on the use of your Account, it will also be assessed and reviewed in the requirement to sign a Unit & Product Licence Agreement.

3. We will then provide written permission for you to use the Trustmark, trademark, and associated marketing assets and share a secure password-protected folder to access all devices.

4. If the Account is publicly registered, we will record the Environmental Account and the Certification pathway in the Environmental Account Registry. The Account page includes details such as the Asset Account(s) Accuracy Level, scale, and Econd®. The Account page also includes the Asset Account Summary tables, the Environmental Account Passport, and links to the Technical Report(s).

Once your Environmental Account is successfully Certified, you will be authorised to use the Accounting for Nature® Trustmark, trademarks, and marketing assets in line with our Claims Rules and Certification Licence Agreements.

After your first Certification, the following is required to be completed, to ensure your Environmental Account remains active.

• An annual registration fee will be paid following initial Account registration. This yearly fee supports us undertaking ongoing due diligence.

• An annual Trustmark Licence fee will be paid following initial Account Certification.

• In non-audit years, prepare and Submit the Annual Certification Compliance Report (ACCR) to outline any material changes in your Environmental Account.

Repeat Step 3-Build and Step 4-Submit at least once every five years.

New data is required to be collected and Certified at least every five years, although some Methods may require data to be collected more frequently. The Method will outline if data needs to be collected from the same sample site every time or if new sites should be established.

The Environmental Account must be audited (either Independent Audit through an assurance engagement or AfN Verified through an AfN Technical Assessment) at least once every five years OR, as per any specific timing requirements of the relevant Method(s) being applied, OR, whenever the base year recalculation is required.

We reserve the right to initiate audits of Environmental Accounts should we suspect a material change has occurred and it has not been reported or for any other reason we deem necessary.