Human Capital
One of at least four forms of capital used by people, organizations, corporations, and governments, to build and maintain their livelihoods. Human Capital is the sum total of knowledge, experience, “good will,” intellectual property, and labor available to an organization or society. While many organizations value their people, many do not manage or measure human capital in sustainable terms.
These four forms of capital are described, in detail, in the book Natural Capitalism.
This is a very interesting idea and it is refreshing that it is placed as a distinct kind of capital simply because it is common for the business world to exhaust it. Respect for Human Capital is a core ethic of sustainability and embracing it is going to further support cultural shifts such as addressing poverty, fair trade, and right livelihood. Measuring human capital in an everyday capacity reflects alterations of human activity on the natural world into consumer goods. Capital is the measure of how natural resources are harvested and altered though human work and organization into product.