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
Q&A: How Quantis Is Driving the Paradigm Shift Towards Science-Based Targets
Following the ratification of the Paris Agreement last fall, companies have become increasingly aware of the need to adopt strong sustainability strategies that have the ability to create real, meaningful change. But to do so requires starting from a... View More
Do Sustainability Metrics Foster Incremental vs Transformational Change?: Part 20
In 19 earlier parts of this series, Claire Sommer,Jill Lipotiand I developed 38 pitfalls in the sustainable business metrics field, based on the experiences of many mostly non-business fields (Find themhere.). ... View More
Reporting 3.0 ‘Data Blueprint’ Explores Future of Integral Information Systems
This is part two of a four-part series on themes explored at the upcoming 4th International Reporting 3.0 Conference. Read part one here. ... View More
Reporting 3.0 ‘Positive Maverick’ Community Pushes Context-Based Multicapitalism
This is part one of a four-part series on themes explored at the upcoming 4th International Reporting 3.0 Conference. ... View More
The Road to Context: What You Need to Know About Contextual Strategy and Goal-Setting (Part 1)
It seems like 2017 is becoming the year of ‘context,’ as the incorporation of sustainability context edges its way into more and more panel conversations and into leading corporate practice. ... View More
Measuring True Impact: Why Science Is Redefining Our Definition of a Sustainable Company
Big changes for better outcomes Businesses today are realizing that to truly address the environmental and social challenges that affect our world, a major shift is required in the way they produce and market products and services. ... View More
New Tool Aims to Assess Landscape-Level Forest Sustainability
As with most industries these days, companies in paper and packaging know that their customers — be they publishers, fast food companies or office suppliers — want to buy products that are deemed sustainable. They know that millions of dollars ca... View More
TD, NCC Assign Economic Value to Ecological Services of Canada’s Forests
Adding to the growing body of research highlighting the value of forests for mitigating climate change, the TD Bank Group (TD) and the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) have released a new report that assigns an economic value to the ecological good... View More
Norway Earns Top Spot in 2017 World Happiness Report
With its narrow economic focus, GDP has long been considered a poor measure of human welfare and progress. Several alternatives have been developed over the years to more accurately measure the well-being of a population, including Gross National Hap... View More
Introducing Aggregate Capital Sufficiency (ACS) – A New Alternative to GDP
The question remains of how best to assess the sustainability of whole economies. If existing measurement models such as GDP, ISEW and GPI focus on size or welfare, then we need a third class of models – one that makes it possible to measure the su... View More
Consumption-Based Metrics: The Next Challenge for Zero-Waste Cities
Cities are major contributors to – and battlegrounds of – climate change. According to a report from the UN Habitat, cities pump out roughly 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions whilst just occupying just 2 percent of the Earth’s land.... View More
Richard Howitt on a Sustainability-Inclusive IIRC: I'm Up for the Challenge!
This post is a response to a challenge posed earlier this year to new IIRC Chief Executive Richard Howitt by Dr. Mark W. McElroy and Martin P. Thomas, co-authors of The Multicapital Scorecard (2016). The goal to make Integrated Reporting the global n... View More
3 Key Resources for Benchmarking Your Sustainability Program
What better time to benchmark your sustainability program than the start of the year? Evaluating whether your program is following best practices can spur improvement and provide justification for prioritizing initiatives. This helps determine whethe... View More
BBC Employs Alberta Scheme to Track Carbon Footprint, Reduce Environmental Impacts
While the fashion, food, auto and energy industries are held to high sustainability standards, television tends to fly under the radar. But environmental sustainability is an important issue to networks and producers across the globe. Sky was the fir... View More
Context and Capitals – The Next Big Things in Corporate Sustainability
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” - Joseph Goldstein Context is a game-changer for sustainability professionals and for the businesses that they work with. A dramatic statement is often a good way to start an article – and s... View More
Is it Time to Add Morality to the Business Case for Sustainability?
Every manager (or consultant) who has pitched an initiative under the banner of “sustainability” has faced the same question nearly every time: What’s the business case? On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with the question. Business is all... View More
With the Changing of the Guard at the IIRC, a Challenge to Richard Howitt
Update: Read Richard's response here. ... View More
New Study Links 'Green' Buildings to Higher Cognitive Function
Can better thinking and better health be found in green-certified buildings? New research says yes. Both indoors and out, the built environment plays a critical role in our overall health and well-being. This is especially true as about 90 percent of... View More
ESG Ratings – Quo Vadis?
The ESG ratings industry is in full transition. Driven by demand from institutional investors and the awakening of the retail investment market, asset managers increasingly consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues an integral part o... View More
Seeing the Forest Through the Trees: The #BusinessCase for Valuing Natural Capital
For the past year, climate change has returned to the top of the international agenda. While I was attending COP22 in Marrakech last month, the news broke that Trump had been elected President of the United States, with widespread possible implicatio... View More
