Measuring socio-economic impact A guide for business

Summary presentation

About the WBCSD

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a global CEO-led coalition of some 183 international companies from over 35 countries and 22 sectors, with a shared commitment to sustainable development. Collectively, members represent an estimated* : 15 million employees 7 USD trillion annual revenues 6 USD trillion market capitalization

(*Source: Observatoire de la Finance, Geneva, May 2011)

WBCSD member companies

Context
Companies are increasingly interested in measuring socio-economic impact as part of: - Maintaining their license to operate - Improving the business enabling environment - Strengthening their value chains - Fueling product and service innovation

But while more and more tools are being developed to help companies measure socio-economic impact, it can be difficult to compare and choose among them - Diversity in tools - Based on different assumptions - Offering different functionality - Focusing on different types of impact - Suiting different purposes

About the guide

The WBCSDs new publication Measuring socio-economic impact: A guide for business is intended to help companies navigate the complex landscape of socio-economic impact measurement. The guide includes 4 sections:

The business case

The essentials

The tools

The road ahead

Outlines business motivations for measuring socioeconomic impact

Introduces the terminology and basic theory used in this space for a business audience

Profiles a selection of 10 publicly available tools tailored for business needs

Suggests areas of focus to accelerate business efforts to measure and manage socio-economic impact

The business case

Why do companies measure their socio-economic impact?

The essentials
Lesson 1 A fundamental first step is to understand how business activities translate into socio-economic impacts Lesson 2 Measurement can happen anywhere along the results chain
Impact

Lesson 3 In the development community, the gold standard is to reach that last link in the results chain; that last link is what is known as Impact Lesson 4 Measuring Impact, in the technical sense of the word, is challenging to do Lesson 5 Prioritization and the judicious use of proxies can be key
Activity
Input

Outcome

Output

Tool selection and analysis

The guide profiles 10 tools, selected on the basis of the following criteria:

1. We focus exclusively on socio-economic impact. Environmental sustainability plays a critical role in socio-economic impact, however tools are relatively well established and can be used together with the ones profiled here whenever environmental and social goals are linked.

2. We focus on tools that have been developed for business and that, in the WBCSDs experience, companies are increasingly interested in.

These tools are analyzed on the basis of functionality, fit for purpose, cost and complexity of implementation, and practical examples of their application in practice.

The 10 tools profiled

Tools analysis overview

The road ahead

The landscape of tools is still evolving. Thus, the guide is intended to be a living document, updated and improved as existing tools are updated and new ones emerge. At the WBCSD, we see two major opportunities to advance the practice of socio-economic impact measurement moving forward: Integrating socio-economic impact measurement into business performance management and reporting Using socio-economic impact measurement to drive more effective collaboration between business, government, and civil society If progress can be made, measuring socio-economic impact holds great promise as enabler of our collective efforts to meet peoples needs and accelerate the transition toward the WBCSDs vision of a sustainable world in which the 9 billion people expected to share the earth by the year 2050 can live well, and within the limits of our one planet.

Access the guide and supporting materials www.wbcsd.org/impact.aspx

For further information please contact: Kitrhona Cerri cerri@wbcsd.org