International land performance framework, 1st edition

RICS International Land Performance Framework (ILPF) is a tool that provides a clear, practical pathway to measuring the holistic performance of rural land assets. It supports businesses in measuring both strategic and operational land performance, enabling them to identify improvement opportunities and mitigate performance risks.

By linking key performance indicators to core business objectives, organisations can make informed decisions about land use and drive meaningful performance improvements.

The Framework is applicable across all jurisdictions, land types, scales and uses, covering soil, water, minerals, agriculture, forestry, natural capital, energy, utilities, land rights and access. Users can start with selected KPIs and expand their portfolio as needs evolve and data availability increases, accommodating businesses of all sizes and levels of sophistication.

It allows for each organisation to design KPIs specific to their objectives and stakeholder requirements, ensuring relevance and practical application. The Framework emphasises reliable data capture, analysis and reporting to ensure credible performance measurement.

The framework offers:

Strategic clarity - Understand your land's full performance, not just profit.
Performance improvement - Identify what's working and what needs attention.
Risk mitigation - Spot performance threats early and take action.
Stakeholder trust - Demonstrate accountability through transparent measurement.
Competitive advantage - Benchmark against peers and identify gaps.
Investment readiness - Provide evidence for funding, loans and subsidies.
Value - Quantify your land's contribution to society and the environment.

“In an era of competing land demands, ILPF is an innovative tool that enables rural land managers globally to customise KPIs spanning economic, social and environmental aspects. ILPF supports decision makers in achieving ongoing enhancements, risk reduction and alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals shifting from profit-only metrics to foster accountability, transparency and efficient resource management for effective global land stewardship.”

Ed Barnston, Barnston Estate

Member of ILPF Expert Group

The ILPF aligns with RICS international standards and UN sustainable development goals. It builds on the International Land Measurement Standard (ILMS). This alignment creates data synergies and ensures compatibility with global best practice.

When you design KPIs using the ILPF, you're connecting your land performance to broader societal priorities and internationally recognised frameworks.

Frequently Asked Questions

RICS develops and enforces leading international standards to protect consumers and businesses, ensuring the highest level of professionalism is employed across the built and natural environment.

Under our Royal Charter, we are required to act in the public interest. Our standards documents lay out the ethical, conduct and competence expected for Members of RICS. By working to our standards, professional members and RICS regulated firms deliver confidence. RICS ensures these standards are upheld by the profession through a system of independently led regulation.

It is a comprehensive tool designed to support organisations with measuring the holistic performance of rural land assets. It does this by assisting the user to develop a suite of KPIs to measure the performance of their rural land assets.

The framework is applicable globally and can be used by businesses of all scales and sizes.

Users of the ILPF can design and develop any KPI that they so wish to measure any aspect of performance of their rural land assets.

For example, a user might want to measure tonnes of carbon sequestered by an area of land, number of visitors availing of open access on their land, length of agricultural tenancies, diversity of species, profit margins on agricultural activities by sector. There is no limit to the KPIs that can be developed.