The new and evolving metrics that are helping expand the way businesses create, quantify, manage and report their impacts, and the value they deliver.
As Sustainable Brands' New Metrics '17 conference kicked off in Philadelphia on Monday, speakers from SASB, CSRLab, WRI, the World Happiness Summit and more presented a range of topics revolving around a few common themes: Correctly measuring what matters, disclosing material data and knowing your audience when you do. From disclosure to performance: Building a virtuous loop By Jessica Bast
Corresponding with the kick off of the 23rd UN Climate Change Conference (COP23), CDP has released a new report finding that over 100 of the world’s state and regional governments are taking action to address climate change, particularly in the short-term.
We need to make better decisions to avoid the potentially severe consequences for businesses operating in a deteriorated environment. The social and environmental megatrends will, over time, act as a drag on prosperity as the costs of basic inputs such as water, energy and land escalate in response to scarcity.
September marked the fifth anniversary of a public comment that I and 65 other members of the Sustainability Context Group submitted to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in the run-up to G4.
Our corporate partners were increasingly being asked to contextualize their sustainability goals and performance. They wanted to understand what tools were available and how to approach the issue of context. The Embedding Project’s Road to Context guide was written to help support this process.
Sustainability requires contextualization within thresholds. That’s what sustainability is all about. Allen White, co-founder, Global Reporting Initiative The part can never be well unless the whole is well. Plato, Charmides, 380 BCE
The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) and the Cool Farm Alliance (CFA) — a nonprofit industry platform and creator of the Cool Farm Tool sustainable agriculture calculator — have signed a memorandum of understanding to improve alignment and reporting of farm-level metrics data. Through the partnership, TSC aims to make the process of reporting on farm-level metrics easier for farmers and food manufacturers.
One of the hallmarks of context-based sustainability (CBS) as an approach to performance accounting in business is that it features the use of organization- or company-specific metrics. Indeed, a basic tenet of CBS is that no two organizations are exactly alike and it makes sense, therefore, for them to use different metrics to assess their performance, all in accordance with their own materiality determinations.
Part Ten in a 10-Part Series by Reporting 3.0. See previous parts below. “If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there,” U.S. baseball icon (and meister of understated irony) Yogi Berra famously stated. This quip accurately describes CSR / ESG incrementalism, which heads in a direction without a clear destination. By contrast, context-based multicapitalism (as advocated by Reporting 3.0) provides not only a clear destination, but also a timeline for tracking the rate of progress needed – across multiple, interrelated dimensions.
As more businesses make moves to align their operations and strategies with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the need for a common framework for reporting on the impacts and contributions of companies to the SDGs becomes more apparent.
A new sense of readiness and willingness from companies is transforming how businesses approach responsible growth. Corporate sustainability is no longer viewed as a trend, but as a necessity. That’s why leading companies across the U.S. and the globe are recognizing that capturing value requires improving energy management, engaging suppliers and driving innovation. One of the most effective ways to do this is by setting targets that are in line with what climate science says in necessary to keep warming below 2 degrees, known as “science-based targets.”
Part Nine in a 10-Part Series by Reporting 3.0. See previous parts below.
Part Eight in a 10-Part Series by Reporting 3.0. See previous parts below.
Massachusetts-based Fourstar Connections, founded in 1986 as a cable assembly shop, has evolved into a comprehensive solution provider with an extensive portfolio of services and solutions to tackle a wide range of manufacturing needs. It also differentiates itself with a focus on sustainability — as a value creator and risk mitigator for the company, as well as for its publicly traded customers. We caught up with Fourstar’s owner and president, Phillip Holman, to learn more about the company’s commitment to sustainability, and why he thinks it’s time for CPAs to lean into discussions and strategy-setting around the issue.
Part Seven in a 10-Part Series by Reporting 3.0. See previous parts below.
Part Six in a 10-Part Series by Reporting 3.0. See previous parts below.
International environmental reporting and data non-profit CDP has released new research in partnership with global infrastructure firm AECOM revealing that $9.5 billion worth of city water projects are now open for investment.
Around this time last year, during World Water Week in Stockholm, a session was hosted which sought to explore the concept of Context-Based Water Targets (CBWTs).
US cities still have a long way to go towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to the first-ever US Cities SDG Index, which ranks the 100 most populous metropolitan areas in the US based on their performance on the SDGs.
Part Four in a 10-Part Series by Reporting 3.0. See previous parts below.