Below is a collection of frequently asked questions about the Universal Commons Project. If you have a question you’d like answered or clarified, please contact us.

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1. Is the Universal Commons seeking to put a price on a tree or an individual human life?

 

The Universal Commons is seeking to encourage the investment in and preservation of our precious social and natural assets, which we call Social and Natural Capital (S&N Capital), because we believe that doing so will contribute to advancing human wellbeing.

 

We believe that humans and nature possess intrinsic value, meaning they have irreducible value in and of themselves. We believe it is not only impossible but also undesirable to attempt to measure the financial value of things with intrinsic value. However, there are things that possess instrumental value according to their perceived “utility” to other ends, one example being money. We believe that aspects of S&N Capital, like literacy, health, clean air and clean water are instrumentally valuable because they  advance human wellbeing. We also believe it is possible to measure the condition of instrumentally valuable things, such as the level of literacy within a population or the pollution in a waterway.

 

Once the condition of S&N Capital is measured, we intend to rely on market forces (reflecting things that people actually value) to determine absolute and relative values among ACs. This market-based approach will encourage investment and innovation and direct capital to where it is most needed to preserve and enhance S&N Capital.

 

By analogy, measuring the length of a piece of timber is not the same as saying how much it is worth. It is simply providing information to enable people to trade timber in lengths, and thereby establish a market price for a metre of timber. Similarly, we believe it is important to be able to measure things like the condition of health, literacy and water so that people can trade those things and set market prices according to their relative value.

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2. Is the Universal Commons seeking to measure and put a price on subjective wellbeing?

 

The Universal Commons is not seeking to measure subjective things like wellbeing. However, the Universal Commons Measurement Challenge will look to identify Asset Classes that contribute to ends that are of value to humanity, which might include some conceptions of wellbeing.

 

For example, if there is abundant empirical evidence that high levels of literacy contribute to subjective wellbeing, then improving the condition of the Asset Class for literacy should reliably contribute to improving wellbeing. This can be done in a robust fashion using high-quality metrics, unlike measuring or attempting to influence wellbeing directly.

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3. How will the Universal Commons Project be able to create financial value by measuring and enhancing Social and Natural Capital? Will the value created sit on par with Financial Capital?
 

We argue that people already value S&N Capital, in the sense that they value living in literate communities without crime, and with clean air and water. However, because S&N Capital isn’t well measured, it is difficult to encourage financial investment in and the preservation of this S&N Capital that they value.

 

By improving the measurement of S&N Capital, and listing various aspects of it on the Universal Commons Exchange (UCX), this will create a market in S&N Capital that people can invest in using Financial Capital. The measurement of S&N Capital will unlock the value of these precious assets and enable them to be brought alongside Financial Capital.

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4. Is the Universal Commons effectively a socialist means of collective ownership over the world's resources?

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The Universal Commons only seeks to measure forms of S&N Capital that already belong in the commons and makes no claim on existing private property, including forms of Financial Capital. The Universal Commons also believes that markets are the most efficient and effective forms of creating and trading in things we value.

 

In this sense, the Universal Commons is the opposite of communism, as we are not seeking any common ownership over private property. Rather, we are attempting to internalise common property into the market.

 

The Universal Commons also believes that individuals and businesses can own private property and can use Social and Natural Capital to make a profit. In fact, by internalising Social and Natural Capital into the market, we can harness the power of self-interest to truly enable Adam Smith's "invisible hand," such that individuals can make a profit by preserving and improving the condition of S&N Capital.

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5. The free market is the cause of much that is wrong in the world today. The Universal Commons Project's proposal is to expand the market even further by including Social and Natural Capital. Won’t that just make things worse?

 

We believe that markets are highly effective mechanisms for allocating resources, transmitting information, increasing efficiency and promoting innovation. The problem is not with markets but with the fact that many things we value, such as S&N Capital, remain as externalities outside of the market.

 

If we expand the market to include not only movements in Financial Capital but also movements in Social and Natural Capital, then we can harness the power of the market to optimise not only financial profit but also social and environmental outcomes.

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6. Not-for-profits already have enough red tape and costs to deal with. Won't the Universal Commons increase their costs by forcing them to measure movements in Social and Natural Capital?

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The goal of the Universal Commons Measurement Challenge is to produce metrics that are inexpensive and will unlock substantially more value than they cost to use. This is similar to how businesses already spend resources tracking and analysing their finances, such as sales, expenses, stock, etc., and yet measurement is a small fraction of the value created and profits earned by businesses.

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The Universal Commons will also benefit not-for-profits that are already burdened by the cost of measurement. This is because measurement is currently often only used as a way to track impact rather than unlock value. Because there is currently no market for S&N Capital, there is no upside from measurement. Once measurement leads to the generation of a product to trade on the market, then there will be greater incentive and reward for conducting measurement.

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7. What will motivate businesses that currently degrade Social and Natural Capital as part of their activities to participating in the Universal Commons Exchange?

 

The Universal Commons Exchange is an entirely voluntary market. As such, there is nothing preventing a business that currently degrades S&N Capital to decline to interact with the UCX.

 

However, there are many businesses, organisations and governments that do care about preserving and improving S&N Capital that will voluntarily interact with the UCX, and will benefit from doing so. We anticipate that existing philanthropists and impact investors will invest in the Universal Commons, creating improvements in S&N Capital, which can be bought by businesses that wish to reduce their impact.

 

We also expect that over time more businesses and financial investors will choose to interact with the UCX, or they might be encouraged to do so by consumers or governments, but the Universal Commons will never compel a business to interact with it.