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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

NATURAL
CAPITAL
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1 Warm up

Look at the following elements. Rate them on a scale of 1 (least important) to 10 (most important).

Food Sleep Money Friends Love

Safety Fun Water Nature Family

In pairs, discuss and explain your answers. Have you got the same answers or are they different? If
they are different, why?

2 Focus on vocabulary

Part A: Write the extracts in the correct places in the definitions.

a structure that protects high level of importance money or property to damage or hurt
to make certain to remove something to work or exist you need to complete

1. shelter (n): you from the weather and danger

2. requirement (n): something that a task
3. capital (n): or a valuable resource
4. value (v): to give something a
5. vital (adj.): needed for something , extremely important
6. harm (v): something or someone
7. eliminate (v): completely
8. ensure (v): that something happens

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NATURAL CAPITAL

Part B: Now choose the right form of the words from Part A to complete the sentences.

1. After our car broke down, my Dad went to find help while my Mum and I sheltered/shelter/sheltering
from the rain.
2. You will be requirement/required/requiring to take a Covid test before you can fly.
3. You should capitalisation/capital/capitalise on the beautiful weather and go out and enjoy yourself.
4. I could not have done this without you. Your help is valuing/invaluable/value.
5. I feel so tired in the afternoons. I always need a coffee to revitalise/vital/vitality me.
6. Smoking is extremely unharmed/harmful/harmed to your health.
7. He got to the final round of the singing competition, but was eliminated/elimination/eliminate
before the end.
8. Before we went on holiday, I ensure/ensuring/ensured all of the doors and windows were locked
and the alarm was set.

Now in pairs, answer the following questions.

1. What do you ensure you do before you leave your home?

2. Which people in your life do you value the most? Why?
3. What is the most important requirement for someone to be your friend?
4. What bad habits do you have that you would like to eliminate?
5. Have you ever harmed yourself doing something silly? What happened?
6. What is vital for you to have in order to be happy?

3 Skimming for general understanding

Quickly read through the text on the next page, and decide which of the following sentences are the
first sentence from each paragraph. Two of them are not used.

A) However, help may be at hand.

B) Unfortunately, this idea doesn’t work.

C) What do you need to live?

D) Rainforests give millions of animals a shelter from humans and the weather.

E) The term "natural capital" may be the answer.

F) This explains what is happening to the rainforests.

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INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)
NATURAL CAPITAL
Natural Capital
Giving nature value
1.
In order of importance, food, water and shelter
are first on the list for anyone. Few people in
modern society have the skills or the need to go
and find those things for themselves in nature. As a
result, humans have created another element which
is needed to survive: money. We all need to
generate money in order to live; therefore society in
all countries is largely built around this requirement.
People, animals and activities that produce capital are
valued and protected. If there is no way for them to
make money, they are ignored, or worse, destroyed.
4.
2.
The "value" of the rainforests in our current economic
systems is in the materials they provide and the land
they occupy. You can buy and sell the wood they
contain, and then buy and sell the land which is made
available once all of the trees have been cleared. The
rainforest just existing though? That isn’t making any
money for anyone. Yet, as any school student will be
able to tell you, the rainforests are indeed performing
a vital function. For one thing, they give us the
oxygen all living things need to survive; a need more
essential than food, water and shelter. So, perhaps
we need a different way of assigning value to the
world?
3.
First used in 1973 by E.F. Schumacher, a German-
British economist, "natural capital" is the concept
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that our natural resources provide us with goods
and free services. By this measure, experts in
conservation calculate that the resources we have
from the Earth add over $125 trillion each year
to the global economy. The problem is, activity
which harms the environment, yet quickly makes
money, is regularly more popular than activity which
will benefit the environment over time. Recent
research by the Paulson Institute found that, around
the world, between $600 billion and $824 billion
more is invested in projects which damage nature
than projects which protect it.
The Capitals Coalition, a global organisation, is trying
to encourage 50% of the world’s businesses, banks
and governments to use natural capital in their
decision-making process by 2030. In March 2021,
the United Nations updated its system for including
the environment in the way costs are measured.
This will allow countries to note changes in their
natural resources and give them enough information
to make decisions which will reduce or eliminate
any negative impact. To date, 90 countries have
started using this system, including Canada, Australia,
the United Kingdom and countries in the European
Union. Seeing our environment for what it is:
valuable natural resources. Many would argue that
this is an important step in ensuring those resources
will remain available to future generations.
Sources: theconversation.com; capitalscoalition.org
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NATURAL CAPITAL

4 Comprehension

Complete the following sentences with one, two or three words from the text.

1. , most people don’t have the skills to find food, water and shelter without access
to money.
2. Society usually values and protects anything which can .
3. At the moment, the we use only value the land and the wood from the rainforests,
which is why they are being destroyed.
4. Even though they are not economically valued, the rainforests are an extremely
important role.
5. believe that $125 trillion is added to the global economy each year by our natural
resources.
6. Projects which nature receive billions of dollars less investment than projects
which destroy it.
7. The United Nation’s system gives countries to use that can reduce the harm to
the environment when they make decisions.
8. A lot of people would support the idea that our environment is and our children
and grandchildren should be able to enjoy it.

5 Rephrasing

Part A: Find words or phrases in the text which mean the same as the following.

1. create (Paragraph 1)

2. not given attention (Paragraph 1)

3. live in or on (Paragraph 2)

4. giving (Paragraph 2)

5. idea (Paragraph 3)

6. available (Paragraph 4)

7. the method for deciding what to do (Paragraph 4)

8. supplies (Paragraph 4)

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Part B: Now use the words and phrases you found in Part A to complete the following questions.

1. What does your country produce?

2. Do you find the of saving the planet interesting or boring? Why?
3. When you want to do something important (like decide whether or not to take a new job) what is
your ?
4. Are you good at responsibility to other people, or do you prefer to do everything
yourself? Why?
5. Do you think environmental problems in your country are generally by the public?
Or do people actively do things to help?
6. What do you think is the best way to money?

Now in pairs, answer the questions above.

6 Referring /optional task

Find the following underlined words in the text and decide what they are referring to.

1. those things (Paragraph 1)

a. skills
b. people
c. food, water and shelter

2. this requirement (Paragraph 1)

a. food
b. money
c. other people

3. they (Paragraph 1)

a. activities
b. people and animals
c. people, animals and activities

4. that (Paragraph 2)

a. the rainforest existing

b. buying and selling land
c. buying and selling wood

5. they (Paragraph 2)

a. students
b. rainforests
c. living things

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NATURAL CAPITAL

6. this measure (Paragraph 3)

a. free services
b. natural capital
c. natural resources

7. its (Paragraph 4)

a. the environment
b. costs
c. The United Nations

8. those (Paragraph 4)

a. future generations
b. the European Union
c. natural resources

7 Talking point
In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What is your reaction to the information in the article? Do you think using Natural Capital is a
good idea, or do you think there will be problems with it?
2. Do you think that this is an idea that is being used in your country, or could be used in your
country? Why/Why not?
3. Is the environment often harmed in your country? Or not? Why?
4. How do most people generate money in your country?
5. Are you concerned about the future of the environment in your country? Or not? Why?

8 Extended activity/homework
Choose one of the following writing tasks.

Write two or three paragraphs explaining your opinion on using the idea of Natural Capital
in your country. Make sure you answer the following questions. Do you think it will work?
Why/Why not? What positive effects could it have? What negative effects could it have?

• Write at least 150 words.

• Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Write a letter to the leader of your country asking them to consider using Natural Capital in
their decision-making. Explain what it is and why you think it is important. Use the text and
your own research to help you.

• Write at least 150 words.

• Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation.

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