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.
New York City’s Street Tree Map Proves Ecological, Economic Benefits of Urban Greenery
The value of ecosystem services has, up until recently, gone largely unrecognized by governments and corporations. While nature is inherently valuable for a variety of obvious reasons, putting a price tag on it isn’t exactly a straightforward process.
Accurately Measuring Impacts of Sustainability Investments Needed Now More Than Ever
On the third and final day of New Metrics ’16, Paul Herman of HIP Investor gave us a to-do list:
Reporting 3.0: Progress Toward a More Common Definition of True Materiality
Drawing on the work of Reporting 3.0 - in particular, its Reporting Blueprint and forthcoming Accounting Blueprint - this panel on the final afternoon of New Metrics ‘16 facilitated an animated discussion on true materiality, exploring the broad range of definitions of materiality, and whether they may coalesce into a more common definition or continue to be disparate for different audiences.
Collaboration Key to Catalyzing Broadscale Shift to Net Positive
Cross-Posted from Product, Service & Design Innovation. On Tuesday, day 2 of New Metrics ’16, Greg Norris of the International Living Future Institute, Jane Abernethy of HumanScale, John Pflueger of Dell, Johanna Jobin of Biogen and Daniel Aronson of Valutus discussed the next stages of the business world’s efforts to become Net Positive.
Scorecards, Standards and Protocols: Where the #NewMetrics Rubber Hits the Road
Day 2 of New Metrics ‘16 kicked off with a main stage presentation from Reputation Dividend director Sandra Macleod, who provided us with a broad overview of how social impact and other factors can influence brand reputation; reputation, she contends, is a core factor that drives investor behavior.
How Organizations Are Transforming Business Models, Capitalism, Metrics, Systems
On Monday, New Metrics ’16 opened on a hopeful note, despite the unrest following a volatile election season in the United States.
Evonomics: Adding Humanity Back Into Economics
New Metrics ‘16 launched on Monday with a sober yet hopeful tone, channeled through the research and work of culture designer Joe Brewer, as he led attendees through a dialogue around what he calls Evonomics - the new evolution of economics.
Human Capital: Are You Valuing Your Greatest Asset?
You may have heard the common business aphorism, “people are our greatest asset.” CEOs such as Richard Branson — founder of the Virgin Group, and Anne Mulcahy — former CEO of Xerox, are among many business leaders who have publicly made statements of this kind. This sentence even appears on the ‘Who We Are’ portion of the Goldman Sachs website. But while businesses so often claim to value their human capital, how do we ensure this aspiration becomes a reality?
New Metrics for a New Economy: Restore the Earth's EcoMetrics Model
The New Economy has begun. One year into a world where global leaders have agreed to act on 17 concrete Sustainable Development Goals, and where the full force of law is now behind the international agreement on climate change, we are speeding toward a bright future for business that creates value for people, the planet, and the economy.
With King IV, Multicapitalism Goes Mainstream
Last week, the Institute of Directors South Africa (IoDSA) released the King IV Report on Corporate Governance, the long-awaited update to King III, published in 2009
HBR's Top Performing CEOs: Financial Results and Sustainability — A Complex Relationship
The Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently published its 2016 list of the world’s top 100 CEOs. As in the past, HBR’s staff looked at the financial and ESG (environment, social, governance) performance of the CEOs of 1,200 large companies. They used a measure of financial performance developed by a team of Harvard academics for 80 percent of their score. The remaining 20 percent came from averaging two overall measures of corporate sustainability performance, including CSRHub.
Planetary Boundaries and Social Thresholds – The Importance of Geography
As the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) kicks off in Marrakech, Morocco – one year on from the historic climate agreement in Paris, and 22 years after the first conference in Berlin – it marks the latest attempt to ensure we live within our planetary boundaries for climate change.
Activate Your Metrics: Lessons from Leaders on Leveraging Environmental Data for Sustainability
During this brief but extremely informative breakfast session on the final morning of SB’16 Copenhagen, representatives from Quantis International revealed how they have leveraged their expertise in extracting environmental data to activate metrics for solid sustainability strategy, engagement and communications.
GRI Launches World’s First Global Standards for Sustainability Reporting
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) released new global sustainability reporting standards, which it says will enhance corporate transparency worldwide. The standards give companies a common language for disclosing non-financial information, and will help firms “make better decisions” and contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or Global Goals).
Navigating a Sea of Sustainability Tools Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard
Frontier Co-Op has always been a recognized leader in sustainability, and it remains an industry leader given its cooperative governance structure, organic and fair trade products, commitment to give back 1%, and Well Earth program for supplier development.
SDGs Becoming More Prominent in Sustainability Reporting, But Challenges Remain
One year after the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or Global Goals), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) proudly announced that nearly a third of its members are communicating on the SDGs, just as United Nations (UN) officials called for more integration of the Goals into corporate sustainability reporting at an annual meeting in Geneva.
Practice What You Preach Can Now Be Measured
There’s a new wave of research that is measuring whether companies’ purpose matches their actions. What it’s found my not be surprising: Globally, there is a purpose-action gap among corporate brands. “It’s time to move from thought leadership to action leadership,” said Charlotte West, director at Business in the Community, a responsible business network in the UK. “We can genuinely make the world a better place by practically embedding purpose in our brands. And a good, resilient purpose should have sustainability at its heart.”
Where Does Your Brand Fall on the Sustainability Maturity Scale?
“For many organizations, the largest challenge is to implement sustainable initiatives.” So stated Daniela Pigosso, co-founder of management consultant firm Essensus, as we began one of the first round of workshops at SB’16 Copenhagen. For the next three hours we learned and discussed how to develop a structured approach to sustainability. It’s Monday morning, and the crowd is smiling. Everyone seemed ready for some serious learning.
How Becoming Future-Fit Is Helping The Body Shop in Its Quest for 'True Sustainability'
“I think we have to be challenging to each other. If we look at the state of the planet, and we look at the performance of business, there’s something not working there.” Chris Davis, The Body Shop’s international CSR and campaigns director, isn’t afraid to cut to the chase. The company’s Enrich not Exploit commitment, launched earlier this year, is a quest to deliver what Davis calls “true sustainability” – in simple terms, it means putting the needs of the planet before corporate interests.
5 Commonly Missed Opportunities in Corporate Sustainability
Sustainability has finally gone mainstream (or, at least, the desire to be seen as doing important work around sustainability and benefit from sustainability credentials has gone mainstream). Well, OK, at the very, very least the desire to be seen as having great sustainability programs is mainstreaming among large multinationals and a growing wave of environmentally or socially minded startups.
