Governance & Policy
Six Capitals
Definition
The Six Capitals are the value categories of the International Integrated Reporting Council's Integrated Reporting Framework (2013): financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital. Integrated reporting asks organisations to explain how they create, preserve or erode value across all six capitals over the short, medium and long term — replacing the purely financial account with a multi-capital one.
References
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This reference provides supporting context for how “Six Capitals” is defined and used.
Overview
How it is used
The capitals model structures integrated reports, natural capital protocol applications, board strategy discussions and academic work on multi-capital accounting.
Why it matters
Six Capitals is the most widely adopted conceptual bridge between accounting and sustainability — the vocabulary in which many boards first encounter natural and human capital.