---
title: how to write your two lists
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-write-your-two-lists
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-write-your-two-lists.md
subtitle: "find what you depend on, find what depends on you, then act on both"
category: how-to
---

# how to write your two lists

*find what you depend on, find what depends on you, then act on both*

A dependency assessment tells you what your operation draws from nature. The next questions are who else stands on the same ground, and what you can do about it.

**A nature dependency assessment** finds what your operation or your place draws from living systems. Write it as list one (what you depend on), then list two (who draws from you). Each list is relations first, then the value that moves along them, mostly unpaid, then money: hold what you depend on, and let what depends on you hold you.

This is for a company's sustainability lead, a county or a town, a land trust with one preserve, and a water utility's watershed lead.

The headwater forest above Marble, Colorado, the beaver meadow below it, the aquifer, the trout in the Crystal River, and the towns downstream already depend on each other, in both directions, whether or not anyone writes it down. Water, shade, held sediment, and cold water move along those relations. So do care, work, and knowledge, and sometimes smoke and runoff. Almost none of it is priced. On [**ensurance**](/?from=guide), each of them can have an account, so the part of that value money can carry has somewhere to go, both ways. Price is a bridge, not the worth. The account is not the forest, and a list is not a market until someone acts on it.

## the cousins: tnfd and encore

The TNFD's LEAP approach asks an organisation to **Locate** its interface with nature, **Evaluate** its dependencies and impacts, **Assess** the risks and opportunities that follow, and **Prepare** to respond and report. LEAP asks about dependencies and about impacts, which sit close to both lists below. ENCORE maps economic sectors and production processes to the ecosystem services they depend on and the pressures they create, at sector level, not parcel level.

Both have helped organisations see real exposure, and LEAP's Locate phase already works at the level of sites. What this method adds is an account for the place, and a way for the people who depend on it to hold it. It is not a reporting framework, and it does not make a disclosure TNFD-aligned.

## step 1: name your node

*What is the smallest thing you can act on?* Not "the watershed." The plant and its intake, the town and its water, the preserve, the cold water a run of fish needs.

Your node is a **place** (ground or water with a name), a **people** (a town, a crew, a company, a utility), or a **purpose** (a job done across many places, like keeping water clean or a slope in place). Pick one. If you are not sure which, [what do you want to ensure?](/guide/what-do-you-want-to-ensure?from=guide) walks the question, and why the relation comes before the instrument.

## step 2: write list one, relation then value

*What stops working if this fails, and where does it come from?* Work through the links: water above your intake, weather upwind, the slope and soil that hold your road or plant, pollinators and the corridor, and the people who keep each one. [What you depend on](/guide/what-you-depend-on?from=guide) works this list in full.

Write every line in three columns, in this order: the relation, the value that moves along it and whether anyone pays for it today, and, left for steps 4 and 5, the account and instrument that could carry a share of it.

| the relation | the value that moves, and is it paid today | account and instrument (steps 4 and 5) |
|---|---|---|
| A town's intake ← the headwater forest and beaver meadow above it | Clean, slowed water; usually unpaid | A place account and its certificate |
| A plant ← the slopes upwind | Air without smoke; unpaid | The wildfire purpose account |
| A county road ← the slope above the switchback | Held sediment, an open road; paid only in repairs after it fails | The erosion-control purpose account |
| An orchard ← the hedgerow | Pollination; unpaid | The pollination purpose account and its coin |
| Any of them ← the crew that clears the culverts | Work, care, local knowledge; partly paid as wages, much of it volunteered | A people account |
| A community water committee ← the spring and the forest around it | Steady flow; mostly unpaid | A place account and its certificate |

If you write "nature" in the first column, keep going until you hit a name. Most of what the middle column holds, [relational value](/guide/what-is-relational-value?from=guide) included, will never have a price. Write it anyway.

## step 3: write list two, relation then value

*Who already carries a bill when you fail?* Use the same three columns, facing the other way. Look downstream, downwind, and along the corridor: the ranch that takes your water after you, the town below your slope, the reach where the outfitter guides. One line might read: the ranch below → the late-summer water your meadow holds back, unpaid → your account and its certificate, which the ranch could hold.

Then ask the harder question: *which of these do I send harm, not benefit?* Smoke, runoff, heat, and a cut corridor travel the same relations as clean water and shade. A harm you send is still a line on list two, and the people who receive it have a reason to fund the fix at the source. [Who depends on you](/guide/who-depends-on-you?from=guide) takes that side in full.

## step 4: find the accounts

Open [explore](/explore?from=guide) and look for each name on both lists. If a relation runs along one kind of link, start at the account that joins the projects along it: [water-cycle.syndicate](/water-cycle.syndicate?from=guide) for water, [wildfire-resilience.syndicate](/wildfire-resilience.syndicate?from=guide) for fire, [wildlife-corridor.syndicate](/wildlife-corridor.syndicate?from=guide) for animals, and [erosion-control.ensurance](/erosion-control.ensurance?from=guide) for slopes. For a basin, [crystal-river.basin](/crystal-river.basin?from=guide) and [arno-river.basin](/arno-river.basin?from=guide) are two examples.

Most names on your lists will not have an account yet. Name the place under the parent it belongs to and open it as a suggestion: [the forest above our intake, under water-cycle.syndicate](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=water-cycle.syndicate&name=the%20forest%20above%20our%20intake&from=guide), or [the slope above our road, under erosion-control.ensurance](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=erosion-control.ensurance&name=the%20slope%20above%20our%20road&from=guide). Replace the sample name with yours. If the place has people who keep it, ask them before you name it. A suggestion proposes; a person reviews it, and it does not decide for the people who keep the place.

## step 5: act inward, the money on list one

*Of everything on list one, what would you miss first?* Start there. This is the third column. Money carries only part of what you wrote in the second; the rest you keep by keeping the relation.

Hold a certificate on a named place you depend on, from [specific ensurance](/specific?from=guide). A certificate is a share in one named place or line. Hold a coin for a purpose you depend on, from [general ensurance](/general?from=guide). A coin is a currency for a purpose wider than one place, like [clean water](/clean-water.ensurance?from=guide) or [pollination](/pollination.ensurance?from=guide).

If your node already has an account, it can do this from its own balance: buy, sell, or swap a coin, and pay for a certificate mint from its own balance. A person confirms each action unless they have switched a program on. One program kind ranks other accounts by shared place, purpose, and people, and writes a one-line reason on every step. The water and weather edges in that ranking are planned; it does not follow the river today. [The account proposes. You confirm.](/guide/the-account-proposes-you-confirm?from=guide) covers the confirm step, and [how to start paying for the nature you depend on](/guide/how-to-start-paying-for-the-nature-you-depend-on?from=guide) covers the budget.

## step 6: act outward, the money on list two

*Can the names on your list two find you?* They cannot hold you if you have no account.

Open an account for what you are, under the group it belongs to, from [agents](/agents?from=guide). A person creates the account, and a person mints its certificate; accounts suggest, humans mint. The account is addressed to the living thing. It is not title, standing, or personhood, and whoever keeps the place still keeps it and signs; [who pays for nature](/guide/who-pays-for-nature?from=guide) explains why. Then send the page to the names on list two.

A person can mint a certificate. Secondary buying and selling of certificates runs through a marketplace route that is not yet end-to-end, so do not promise anyone a resale.

## step 7: read the holdings

*Does the account hold what it says it depends on?* An account's own page has a portfolio tab that shows the assets and currencies it holds. Check list one against it, on your account or anyone's.

The explore graph shows funding, membership, and relation edges. It does not yet draw holdings, so read those on the account page.

Where an account receives money, [proceeds](/proceeds?from=guide) can route a set share of what it receives onward. The operator sets the split; anyone can trigger its distribution. All of this is small and goes one account at a time.

Write both lists. Act on both. That is the whole method.

:::johnson
**write the relation, then the value, then the money.** List one tells you what to hold; list two tells you who should hold you. Start with one name on each.

[find the first name on explore →](/explore?from=guide)
:::

## where to start, by reader

| reader | start here |
|---|---|
| Companies with a plant, an intake, or a supply chain | [corporations](/solutions/corporations?from=guide&topic=both-directions) |
| Towns, counties, states, and community water committees | [governments](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=both-directions) |
| Land trusts and conservancies | [land stewards](/solutions/land-stewards?from=guide&topic=both-directions) |
| Water and power utilities | [utilities](/solutions/utilities?from=guide&topic=both-directions) |

Want help with both lists? [Talk to someone who can help write them](/contact?from=guide&topic=both-directions). Bring the names.

## frequently asked questions

### what is a nature dependency assessment?

A nature dependency assessment is a review of what an operation or a place draws from living systems: water, weather, slope, soil, pollinators, and the people who keep them. Write it as relations and the value that moves along them, then pair it with list two, who depends on you, before any money moves.

### how is this different from a tnfd leap assessment?

LEAP asks about dependencies and impacts and leads to disclosure. This method adds an account for each place on your lists, and a way to act on both. It complements a LEAP assessment and does not make one TNFD-aligned.

### what if the place i depend on has no account yet?

Name it under the parent it belongs to and open it as a suggestion, for example [under water-cycle.syndicate](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=water-cycle.syndicate&name=the%20forest%20above%20our%20intake&from=guide). The place is already a node whether or not it has an account; a suggestion proposes one, and a person reviews it.

## the series

1. [every account has two lists](/guide/every-account-has-two-lists?from=guide) — read first
2. [what you depend on](/guide/what-you-depend-on?from=guide)
3. [who depends on you](/guide/who-depends-on-you?from=guide)
4. [a bid on both ends of every edge](/guide/a-bid-on-both-ends-of-every-edge?from=guide)
5. [no single funder, no single supplier](/guide/no-single-funder-no-single-supplier?from=guide)
6. how to write your two lists — this post

## sources

[TNFD, "Guidance on the identification and assessment of nature-related issues: the LEAP approach"](https://tnfd.global/publication/additional-guidance-on-assessment-of-nature-related-issues-the-leap-approach/) — The four phases: Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare

[ENCORE](https://encorenature.org/) — Economic sectors and production processes mapped to the ecosystem services they depend on and the pressures they create