72 AMERICANWAY
OCTOBER 1 2007
moral and aesthetic arguments for preserv-
ing nature; it’s time to point to the bottom
line andmake nature a regular column on
spreadsheets and in cost-benefit analyses.
“Time is running short,” she says. “Ap-
pealing to moral sense isn’t enough any-
more. We have to make conservation fit
mainstreambusiness calculations.”
What’s made nature so valuable is the
fact that we’ve destroyed so much of it,
Daily says. “It’s the scarcity that now con-
fers potential economic value to natural
capital inmanyplaceswhere, in the past, it
was so abundant that no one was going to
fight over it,” she adds. “Itwas like air.Now
everything’s changing.”
Daily divides nature’s services into four
categories:
Ecosystem goods, or the traditionalmea-
sure of nature’s products, such as seafood,
timber, andagriculture
Basic life-support functions, such as wa-
ter purification, flood control, soil fertility
renewal, climate stability, andpollination
Life-fulfilling functions, the beauty and
inspirationweget fromnature
Basic insurance, or the idea that nature’s
diversity contains something with a value
that isn’t known today but that may prove
tobe important in the future.
Only thefirst category,Dailynotes, tradi-
tionally has been valued. “Much ofMother
Nature’s labor has enormous and obvious
value,whichhas failed towin respect in the
marketplaceuntil recently,” she says.
To prod the marketplace toward ac-
knowledging andpaying for those services,
Daily andStanfordUniversityhave teamed
with theWorldWildlife Fund and theNa-
ture Conservancy to create the Natural
CapitalProject. It’sanambitiousattempt to
develop conservation approaches and pro-
grams that recognize the economic value of
preserving natural resources and their ser-
vices. So far, the project is focusing on four
sites: theEasternArcMountains of Africa,
theupperYangtzeRiverBasin inChina, the
central coast ofCalifornia, andHawaii.
Daily says that in the United States, the
money raised by the project might flow
through something like the U.S. Farm Bill
and pay farmers for retaining nitrogen on
duction,” she says. “In Brazil, there is a big
program, in themillions of dollarsper year,
aimed at achieving water-quality benefits
by conserving rain forest. InEcuador, there
is the Quito water fund, set up a couple of
years ago, which pays for conservation and
restoration of forests to protectQuito’swa-
ter supply.”
When it comes to water in the United
States, theEnvironmentalProtectionAgen-
cy projects that it will have to spend $140
billion over the next 20 years to maintain
drinking-water quality at the minimum
required standards. Daily says it’s no won-
der, then, that 140 cities throughout the
world have studied using a protected-land
approach similar toNewYorkCity’s.
“Attaching a value to natural capital is
not the end of the story,”Daily says. “That’s
just one small step inbringing these values
into the much bigger politics of decision
making. What we’re hoping to do is to not
just put aprice tagon thingsbut todevelop
institutions and policies that incorporate
the value of nature and reward people for
investing inandprotecting those values.”
JEFFREY IMMELT
ECOMAGINEER
Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chairman and chief
executive officer of General Electric, has
become the darling of the environmental
movement in recent years. His Ecomagi-
nation campaign highlights the need for
reduced emissions, more sources of clean
water, and cleaner,more efficient sourcesof
energy. It’s a stylish campaign (actor Kevin
Klinenarratespresentationson the compa-
ny’sEcomagination site), and it’s got plenty
of substancebehind it.
To Immelt, green isgreen— it’s as simple
asthat. “In2004,weweregoingthroughour
summerstrategicplan,andabouttwo-thirds
of the business reviews included new prod-
ucts inenergyefficiency,waterconservation,
environmental technologies, and things like
that,”hesaid inan interview lastyear. “Sowe
their land, for pu-
rifying water, or
for maintaining an
area of scenic beau-
ty or wildlife habi-
tats for pollinators
and other animals.
There are already
payment systems in
place inother coun-
tries, Daily points
out. “China has
massive payments
— in the billions
of dollars per year
— for forest resto-
ration and conser-
vation,with theaim
being to achieve
flood control and
hydropower
pro-
It’s time togobeyondmoral and
aesthetic arguments for preserving
nature; it’s time topoint to the
bottom line andmake nature a
regular column on spreadsheets.
Microwaves are between 3.5 and 4.8 timesmore energy efficient than traditional electric ovens. If everyone inNorthAmerica cooked
