SB'25 San Diego is open for registration! Sign up by January 1st to lock in the pre-launch price!

What Metrics Are You Using to Measure the Success of Sustainability Initiatives?

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, corporate sustainability architect Bill Baue and Paul Herman of HIP Investor, the SB editorial team is seeking features, interviews, columns and case studies to publish throughout the year. This is a great opportunity to showcase the innovations you and your organization have pioneered — sustainable business metrics that strategically link to financial, ecological and social performance.

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, corporate sustainability architect Bill Baue and Paul Herman of HIP Investor, the SB editorial team is seeking features, interviews, columns and case studies to publish throughout the year. This is a great opportunity to showcase the innovations you and your organization have pioneered — sustainable business metrics that strategically link to financial, ecological and social performance.

Content Guidelines

Our readers are business leaders and strategists seeking information about how others are profitably innovating for sustainability. They seek insights and ideas that might be applied across market sectors about how to drive top-line growth while successfully reducing the impacts of their operations, and engaging key stakeholders along the way.

We evaluate submissions based on currency and relevance of the examples or ideas presented, balance of perspective, strength and clarity of content and delivered principles. See our Writers’ Handbook for further guidelines.

What

Written, audio or video perspectives on your implementation of sustainability metrics in your business — namely, metrics that measure impacts on the full range of capital beyond financial and monetary, such as quantifiable human, social and natural capital. or example:

  • balanced scorecard that includes eco or social metrics
  • environmental profit and loss statement
  • putting people on the balance sheet as an asset

If written, please edit to 600-1000 words. See previous submissions here.

Who

CEOs, Board Members, CFOs, and VPs and chiefs of sustainability, products and business units, as well as advisors, academics, social leaders and NGOs or any leaders actively innovating new sustainability metrics.

When

Article ideas and submissions will be accepted on an ongoing basis throughout the year; email our editors at the addresses below.

Examples of New Metrics of Sustainable Business Success

All sustainable business metrics are welcome, including those that help frame the context of how and where organizations operate and interact inside the earth and society at large, or the following categories of impact that HIP Investor outlines in its methodology for rating and ranking sustainability:

  • Health: Physical and mental health and quality-of-life of staff (i.e. wellness, body mass index), as well as ongoing employee engagement and staff satisfaction indicators
  • Wealth: Growing the income and wealth of employees and contractors (e.g. wealth matching, ratio of CEO pay to all staff pay)
  • Earth: Reduced or optimized natural resource usage; clean air, water, land and waste metrics, including carbon or greenhouse-gas intensities; lifecycle analysis ratings
  • Equality: Opportunity for a diverse staff to lead and contribute to the enterprise (e.g. women, ethnicities), as well as serving a global population across countries and income levels
  • Trust: Transparent and ethical behaviors (e.g. third-party certifications that drive results, open-source sustainability metrics and reporting)

Send submissions to guest editors:

Paul Herman – guest editor
Bill Baue – guest editor Jennifer Elks - Managing Editor

Upcoming Events

October 13-16, 2025
SB'25 San Diego
US Event
More Information

March 18-19, 2025
SB'25 Tokyo Marunouchi
More Information

April 9-10, 2025
SB Member Network: Accelerating Good Growth Spring Member Meeting
Member Event
More Information

Related Stories

First-of-Their-Kind Metrics Guide Supply Chain Transition to Safer Chemistry NEW METRICS
First-of-Their-Kind Metrics Guide Supply Chain Transition to Safer Chemistry
GSK, Kering Among Companies Setting Bar for Nature Strategies NEW METRICS
GSK, Kering Among Companies Setting Bar for Nature Strategies
Early Adopters Share Insights from Piloting Science-Based Targets for Nature NEW METRICS
Early Adopters Share Insights from Piloting Science-Based Targets for Nature