Why report cards

Report cards are one of the most effective ways to make environmental data accessible to a broad audience. They also attract a well-known criticism. Natural Capital Impact is built to answer it.

What a report card does

Research and monitoring produce large volumes of environmental data. A report card condenses that data into something as easy to read as a school report card. Instead of grades for maths and English, there are grades for river health, biodiversity, water quality, or carbon outcomes.

The usual criticism

Scientists and technical audiences often describe paper report cards as overly simplistic, and point out that they lack the contextual detail needed to plan a management response. The usual alternative is a detailed technical report, which solves that problem but is largely inaccessible to non-technical audiences, including many of the decision-makers who most need to act on it.

Example of a historical Reef Water Quality Report Card in simple pamphlet format.

Progressive disclosure

A web-based interactive report card designed using progressive disclosure removes the trade-off. A visitor starts with a simple, high-level result, then drills down by location and by indicator into the underlying detail, methods, and data, without leaving the report. The public gets a clear summary. Specialists get the evidence behind it. Both are reading the same report, which means there is only one thing to maintain.

See drill down for how the structure works in practice.

More than a report card

Natural Capital Impact suits any organisation that needs to publish spatial and temporal data (particularly environmental data) as an interactive web document that stays current. That includes natural resource management plans, environmental dashboards, and corporate nature performance reporting.

Where the approach comes from

The approach for Natural Capital Impact was developed on the back of Truii’s experience developing environmental reporting apps like Healthy Waterways Strategy Report Card and the Great Barrier Reef Report Card.

The reporting and communication strategy underlying the Great Barrier Reef Report Card was developed over 15 years. The Paddock to Reef program needed to report progress against the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan for two very different audiences: a short pamphlet for the public and hundreds of pages of technical detail for specialists. Truii was commissioned to create an online interactive report card to replace both.

Natural Capital Impact makes that same approach available to any organisation.

High-level views of the Great Barrier Reef Water Quality Report Card’s 2025 Catchment Targets results (left/top) and the Healthy Waterways Strategy Report Card for Port Phillip and Westernport (bottom/right).