New Metrics

The new and evolving metrics that are helping expand the way businesses create, quantify, manage and report their impacts – and the value they deliver

Article
New Metrics
From Invisible to Impact: Value in the Personal Data Economy
From Invisible to Impact: Value in the Personal Data Economy
Published on August 14, 2013
About a 7 minute read

There’s been a lot of talk about the power of Big Data in our modern digital economy. But tech experts will be the first to tell you “Big Data” is a marketing term, not a magic bullet. While it’s important to know how to best aggregate and ma... View More

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New Metrics
What Metrics Are You Using to Measure the Success of Sustainability Initiatives?
What Metrics Are You Using to Measure the Success of Sustainability Initiatives?
Published on August 8, 2013
About a 3 minute read

Calling all innovators & implementers! This month, Sustainable Brands will relaunch an Issue in Focus editorial channel dedicated to showcasing the New Metrics of sustainable business success (#NewMetrics).With the help of our guest editors, corp... View More

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New Metrics
Sustainability Investing Grows Quickly, Though Measuring ROI Remains a Challenge
Sustainability Investing Grows Quickly, Though Measuring ROI Remains a Challenge
Published on August 7, 2013
About a 4 minute read

As a growing slice of a larger corporate push to develop more creative solutions to sustainability challenges, impact investing encourages financial actors to consider social and environmental issues when making investment decisions.These financial a... View More

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New Metrics
Follow-Up to SB'13: Bob Willard on the Emergence of Capitalism 2.0
Follow-Up to SB'13: Bob Willard on the Emergence of Capitalism 2.0
Published on July 9, 2013
About a 6 minute read

Bob Willard is an expert on quantifying and selling the business value of corporate sustainability strategies. He serves on the advisory boards of The Natural Step Canada and Forum for the Future US, and his fourth book, The New Sustainability Advant... View More

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New Metrics
Five Reasons Every Business Should Care About the New Metrics of Sustainable Business
Five Reasons Every Business Should Care About the New Metrics of Sustainable Business
Published on July 1, 2013
About a 5 minute read

Every now and then, as I discuss various products Sustainable Brands has to offer to our growing community of brands and solution providers, I mention our New Metrics of Sustainable Business conference and I detect either a blank stare or a confused ... View More

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New Metrics
Research: Calculating the Hidden Risks of Environmental Damage
Research: Calculating the Hidden Risks of Environmental Damage
Published on June 19, 2013
About a 4 minute read

A new analysis reveals that some business activities do not generate sufficient profit to cover their natural resource use and pollution costs, creating large, hidden risks that affect some industries operating in certain regions of the world. The an... View More

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New Metrics
Elephants in the Glass House: Contextualizing Sustainability and Integrated Reporting
Elephants in the Glass House: Contextualizing Sustainability and Integrated Reporting
Published on June 19, 2013
About a 6 minute read

Cutting the fluff out of reporting by looking at some of the root causes of sustainability challenges may help stakeholders to better understand in how far the majority of companies are part of the problem or can be part of the solution to human surv... View More

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New Metrics
G4 Revamps Materiality While Staying True to Its Roots
G4 Revamps Materiality While Staying True to Its Roots
Published on May 23, 2013
About a 4 minute read

If the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) created a semantic “heat map” of the most-used terms at its Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting this week, Materiality would win hands-down. ... View More

Article
New Metrics
What I Learned About Sustainability At REI, Part 2: Metrics Over Intuition
What I Learned About Sustainability At REI, Part 2: Metrics Over Intuition
Published on May 20, 2013
About a 3 minute read

This is the second in a series of posts on things I learned while leading Corporate Social Responsibility at REI for the past seven years (read part one). ... View More

Article
New Metrics
Run Up to SB '13: John Havens Crowdsourcing Happiness To Save the World
Run Up to SB '13: John Havens Crowdsourcing Happiness To Save the World
Published on May 7, 2013
About a 6 minute read

John C. Havens is founder of the H(app)athon Project, a contributing writer for Mashable and ... View More

Article
New Metrics
New Tool Kit Helps Companies Make Better Natural Capital Decisions
New Tool Kit Helps Companies Make Better Natural Capital Decisions
Published on April 21, 2013
About a 2 minute read

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) last week released a new toolkit to help businesses assess, measure and value the natural capital used throughout their operations. ... View More

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New Metrics
Crossing Thresholds: From Fossil Fuel Divestment to Sustainable Investment
Crossing Thresholds: From Fossil Fuel Divestment to Sustainable Investment
Published on March 27, 2013
About a 9 minute read

Three cheers to Bill McKibben and 350.org for raising much-needed awareness through their campaign urging university endowments and pension funds to divest from fossil fuel-producing companies. ... View More

Article
New Metrics
eBay Launches Standard for Measuring Costs, Impacts of Online Transactions
eBay Launches Standard for Measuring Costs, Impacts of Online Transactions
Published on March 19, 2013
About a 2 minute read

eBay has released a new Digital Service Efficiency (DSE) dashboard to monitor and analyze the cost, performance and environmental impact of customer buy and sell transactions in an effort to balance and tune its technical infrastructure, according to... View More

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New Metrics
UK Task Force Report Explains Why Businesses, Government Should Prioritize Environmental Preservation
UK Task Force Report Explains Why Businesses, Government Should Prioritize Environmental Preservation
Published on March 5, 2013
About a 3 minute read

Today, the Ecosystem Markets Task Force (EMTF), an independent task force aimed at finding new opportunities for UK businesses to drive green economic growth, released its Final Report stating the opportunities available for businesses that properly ... View More

Article
New MetricsCircular Economy
Shell’s ‘New Lens Scenarios’ Predict Near-Zero Global Carbon Emissions by 2100
Shell’s ‘New Lens Scenarios’ Predict Near-Zero Global Carbon Emissions by 2100
Published on March 5, 2013
About a 3 minute read

Shell released new scenarios last week that explore two possible futures with dramatically different implications for society and the world’s energy system. One scenario sees cleaner-burning natural gas becoming the most important energy source glo... View More

Article
New Metrics
Heinz, Colgate Divulge Forest Footprints, But Many Firms Falling Behind, Report Says
Heinz, Colgate Divulge Forest Footprints, But Many Firms Falling Behind, Report Says
Published on February 1, 2013
About a 2 minute read

Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Gucci and Heinz reported their forest impacts for the first time this year, but the gap between leading companies and laggards is growing, according to the fourth annual Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) Report.Every year F... View More

Article
New Metrics
EnergyPoints' Universal Metric Is Linchpin for New Integrated Reporting Application
EnergyPoints' Universal Metric Is Linchpin for New Integrated Reporting Application
Published on January 23, 2013
About a 2 minute read

Software company EnergyPoints unveiled a new application this week designed to enable businesses to issue a single, integrated sustainability report that conveys both the financial and environmental impact of a company’s energy and resource consump... View More

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New Metrics
Groundbreaking Cabot Study Reveals Shortcomings of Conventional Sustainability Metrics
Groundbreaking Cabot Study Reveals Shortcomings of Conventional Sustainability Metrics
Published on September 26, 2012
About a 5 minute read

A new study of carbon emissions highlights striking differences between conventional and new, context-based sustainability metrics. Cabot Creamery Cooperative, a well-known dairy company, last month concluded a retrospective study in which the reliab... View More

Article
New Metrics
Let’s Value People as an Asset, and Bring Financial Statements into the 21st Century
Let’s Value People as an Asset, and Bring Financial Statements into the 21st Century
Published on September 26, 2012
About a 7 minute read

What is your organization’s most important asset? CEOs often respond that the organization’s people are its greatest asset. But if this is true, where are people accounted for in the financial statements? Today, people are generally classified as... View More

Article
New Metrics
GRI’s G4 Exposure Draft Undermines Sustainable Global Economy
GRI’s G4 Exposure Draft Undermines Sustainable Global Economy
Published on July 9, 2012
About a 5 minute read

We’re scratching our heads over the Global Reporting Initiative’s recent release of the Exposure Draft of its fourth generation of Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (dubbed “G4”). ... View More

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