Nature as Infrastructure: Air, Soil, and Water as Balance-Sheet Assets

TLDR: The economy runs on nature the way it runs on infrastructure; clean air, healthy soil, and fresh water are assets a business depends on, and the companies that account for them protect their own foundation.

The economy sits on natural capital

The dependency is measurable. The World Economic Forum found that 44 trillion dollars of value, over half of global GDP, is moderately or highly dependent on nature. PwC later put the exposure at 55 per cent of GDP, around 58 trillion dollars. Nature behaves like infrastructure: roads, grids, and pipes carry the economy, and so do pollinators, watersheds, and fertile soil. A company that treats nature as free treats its own foundation as free.

Air, soil, and water are the asset classes

Read across this series and the pattern resolves. Clean air becomes an asset when a company funds and verifies carbon removal. Healthy soil becomes an asset when a company measures the carbon and resilience that regenerative land holds. Fresh water becomes an asset when a company recycles and replenishes it at the meter. Each one moves from a free input to a managed resource the moment it is measured. Together they form the natural infrastructure a balance sheet has long overlooked.

Accounting is catching up

The tools arrived. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) published its framework in 2023, and adoption climbed fast: by mid-2025 more than 600 organisations with a combined 7 trillion dollars in market value had committed to TNFD-aligned reporting, and the TNFD Forum had passed 1,800 members. Nature is moving from a footnote into financial reporting, where a dependency named is a dependency a board can manage.

Where companies start

Boards can run a nature-dependency assessment along TNFD lines, which names where the business relies on air, soil, and water. Operations can measure those dependencies as assets, with the same verification an emissions number earns, the discipline Mezyan sets out in its guide to verifiable carbon data. Investors can price nature risk into capital, where a measured dependency becomes a managed one.

Mezyan works with boards to turn a nature-dependency assessment into reporting that holds up.

FAQ

What is natural capital?
The stock of natural assets, including air, soil, water, and biodiversity, that supplies the resources and services an economy depends on.

What is the TNFD?
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, a framework that helps companies assess and report their nature-related dependencies, impacts, and risks.

How does nature reach the balance sheet?
Through measurement and disclosure: a company assesses its dependencies, quantifies them, and verifies the data, which turns a free input into a managed asset.

References

1. World Economic Forum. Half of World’s GDP Moderately or Highly Dependent on Nature, Says New Report. https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/01/half-of-world-s-gdp-moderately-or-highly-dependent-on-nature-says-new-report/
2. PwC. PwC boosts global nature and biodiversity capabilities (55% of GDP exposed to nature risk). https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2023/pwcboosts-global-nature-and-biodiversity-capabilities.html
3. TodayESG. TNFD Releases 2025 Status Report. https://www.todayesg.com/tnfd-releases-2025-status-report/
4. Mezyan. Cleaning the Air: The Carbon-Removal Innovations That Actually Scale. https://mezyan.ch/carbon-removal-innovations-that-scale/
5. Mezyan. The Soil Beneath the Strategy: Regenerative Land Use as an ESG Asset. https://mezyan.ch/regenerative-agriculture-soil-esg-asset/
6. Mezyan. Closing the Loop on Water: Turning Industrial Waste Streams into Supply. https://mezyan.ch/closing-the-loop-on-water-reuse/
7. Mezyan. Five Questions That Pressure-Test Carbon Data Before a Buyer, Bank, or Auditor Does. https://mezyan.ch/verify-carbon-data-five-questions/