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Forum for the Future has developed a widely used five capital model of sustainability which may be described as follows:
Natural Capital (also referred to as environmental or ecological capital) represents the stock of environmentally-provided assets and falls into two categories.
Resources, some of which are renewable (trees, vegetation, fish, water); some non-renewable (fossil fuels, minerals). In some places, ostensibly renewable resources (like fertile soil) have become effectively non-renewable (desert).
Services, such as climate regulation or the powerful natural cycles which process waste.
Human Capital consists of the health, knowledge, skills, motivation and spiritual ease of people; all the things that enable people to feel good about themselves, each other, and to participate in society and contribute productively towards its well-being (wealth). Recently recognised as providing a high return on investment, especially in developing societies (where investment in human resources is viewed as possibly the most essential ingredient of development strategies) but also in the highly industrialised world.
Social Capital is all the different co-operative systems and organisational frameworks people use to live and work together, such as families, communities, governments, businesses, schools, trade unions, and voluntary groups. Although they involve different types of relationships and organisation they are all structures or institutions that add value to human capital, and tend to be successful in doing so if based on mutual trust and shared purpose. Again the importance of social capital is only recently being recognised, unfortunately though the increasingly visible negative effects when it is eroded.
Manufactured Capital comprises all human fabricated 'infrastructure' that is already in existence; the tools, machines, roads, buildings in which we live and work, and so on. In some cases, manufactured capital may be viewed as a source of materials (eg. building waste used as aggregate for road building or repair).
Financial Capital is in fact different from the other four capitals in that it has, strictly speaking, no intrinsic value; whether in shares, bonds or banknotes, its value is purely representative of natural, human, social or manufactured capital. Financial capital is nevertheless very important, as it reflects the productive power of the other types of capital, and enables them to be owned or traded.
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