James Spurgeon

James Spurgeon is the founder and director of Sustain Value, a consultancy firm he established in 2011 to advise financial institutions, investors, multi-national companies and governments on natural capital, multi-capitals and the blue economy. He is an environmental economist with 30 years consulting experience in natural capital valuation and financing, with considerable experience relating to tropical marine and coral reef ecosystems. Since authoring a paper on the economic value of coral reefs in 1992 he has published numerous papers on coral economics (including on coral restoration and financing) and has undertaken many marine and coastal natural capital/ecosystem service studies throughout the world including in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the South China and Philippines Seas. These include marine natural capital accounts and assessments, sustainable financing studies, damage assessments, investment opportunity appraisals, and IFC PS6 and TNFD studies. James sits on the Capitals Coalition Advisory Panel, was a lead author of the Natural Capital Protocol and is lead technical advisor and a main author of the forthcoming Integrated Capitals Protocol. He was also a technical advisor and author for the Natural Capital Protocol’s Finance Sector Supplement and technical advisor to the International Finance Corporation for their Natural Capital Protocol country level assessments.