It’s never been more important for business owners and entrepreneurs to think carefully about how their activities affect the world around us. One of the biggest social concerns, for example, is carbon emissions. What’s more, some of the biggest brands on the planet are dedicated to making workplaces more inclusive, ensuring that everyone has the same opportunities.
However, measuring social impacts is not always easy. Depending on what you intend to measure and the scale of your business, you may need to invest considerable time, effort and resources into laying your impacts out flat.
Let’s explore a few of the ways that businesses already measure their social impact, and why certain methodologies might be beneficial to you.
Follow GRI standards and become more transparent
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) helps businesses in more than 100 territories become more sustainable in their social impacts. Specifically, drafting business reports based on GRI’s standards covers bases as diverse as human rights, data privacy, global warming and giving back to communities.
Businesses that report via the GRI disclose their resource usage, labor values and sector-specific environmental impacts — with a view to having their results published publicly for all to see.
Following GRI’s framework and regular reporting system ensures that the good a business does is wide out in the open.Being honest is not just good public relations, but it is also reassuring for the millions of people who feel disillusioned by corruption and corporate greed.
It’s good practice for all entrepreneurs and business people to be open and honest about their activities and to track them regularly. Top philanthropists such as business leader Ehsan Bayat are always clear about their personal missions and what their investments and businesses do to help meet them. In Mr. Bayat’s case, such personal missions include helping to support young and disadvantaged people in Afghanistan.
Becoming B Corp certified
A business that earns a B Corp certification is one that has made serious strides in taking stock of andproving its incredible social and environmental dedication. Gaining a certification to become B Corp recognized also includes some legal requirements as businesses that commit to this social framework agree that they should make corporate governance entirely accountable to all stakeholders involved.
B Corp businesses are, much like those that commit to the GRI, happy and open to having their impacts and efforts publicly listed to be measured against certain standards and expectations. This public accountability can help businesses to keep on top of their social impact and ongoing improvements too as it can be useful in preventing one-off changes for the sake of public relations or even greenwashing.
The B Corp framework is famously modular and holistic, much like the GRI’s, so while business leaders need to put serious work into proving their good work and staying accountable, there’s no set order to getting started.
Think creatively about key performance indicators (KPIs)
In all walks of business, the most important KPIs for most leaders are financial, such as the revenues, losses and expenses by the end of each trading year.
However, to measure social impact more transparently andresponsibly, business owners need to think more broadly about non-financial KPIs. They need to take time to plan out measurable, trackable metrics that are directly connected to societal and environmental change.
For example, some businesses might track the diversity of their hires, how many volunteers they welcome and where they hire from. Do they hire people from the local community, or look further afield? Do they require highly specific qualifications or do they open jobs to broader pools of people by focusing on aptitude instead?
When it comes to environmental impacts, businesses could record and track their carbon emissions, waste reduction efforts and resource purchases. Are you specifically making an effort to reduce plastic consumption via office supply management for instance?
Beyond this, business owners should also focus on the wellbeing of their employees too as part of social impact. As part of tracking social KPIs, leaders might ask for regular feedback and tailor their benefits based on the responses they receive.
It’s all about being more transparent
The key to mapping out the social impacts of a business is all about committing to being more transparent and being willing to dive into the near-endless data and analytical potential available to you. Whether you want to boost supply chain sustainability or intend to give back to local communities, opening up and analyzing your data via public frameworks can help you to stay accountable.
That can mean taking responsibility for shortcomings and potentially risking public relation difficulties if you are starting from scratch. However, consumers, stakeholders and other businesses will be grateful for your honesty and commitment to making the world a slightly better place to live in.
