London, UK, Wednesday 17 November — Leading international providers of sustainability standards and guidance have come together to create the Impact Management Platform, a collaboration to mainstream the practice of impact management. As a first product, the ‘Platform’, whose steering committee brings together a set of multilateral organisations, has launched a web tool that outlines the core actions of impact management and links to the resources to help organisations and investors implement them.

Over the past decade, there has been significant growth in demand for organisations to improve their impacts on people and the planet, and to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Core to making this possible is effective impact management. However, the growing number of initiatives supporting different aspects of impact management have been difficult for enterprises and investors to navigate. With the climate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic demonstrating the fundamental interdependencies between markets and sustainability issues, the urgency to build a coherent and complete system of principles, standards and guidance for how to improve sustainability impacts has never been greater.

Through the Platform, partnering organisations will work together to identify opportunities to consolidate existing sustainability resources, collectively address gaps, and coordinate with policymakers and regulators to support the mainstreaming of impact management. This effort represents the next phase of a global collaboration that, until now, was facilitated by the Impact Management Project (IMP), a five-year consensus-building forum designed to run until 2021. Earlier work included facilitating sustainability disclosure initiatives to agree a shared vision for corporate reporting, and supporting the consolidation of the investor-focused disclosure initiatives into the IFRS Foundation and its new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The Platform, whose Steering Committee of multilaterals will also advise the ISSB, provides a complementary forum for the broader task of supporting practitioners to manage their sustainability impacts.

“With all of the different frameworks, standards, and tools available for investors and enterprises to manage their impact, it’s no surprise that there is confusion, and that confusion can unfortunately lead to either paralysis or inefficiency at a time when the world needs more and bolder impact management from the private sector,” said Dan Osusky, Head of Standards and Insights at B Lab. “At the same time, many of those different initiatives serve important, different, and complementary purposes, which the Impact Management Platform will help clarify and allow companies to navigate. We’re proud to partner and collaborate with the Impact Management Platform partners to help achieve a more equitable, inclusive, and regenerative economic system.”

Partners planning to work together through the Platform include B Lab, Capitals Coalition, CDP, Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative at Harvard Business School (IWAI), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), Value Reporting Foundation, Social Value International, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), UN Global Compact (UNGC) and World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA).

A joint launch webinar at 10am EDT / 3pm GMT / 4pm CET on Tuesday 23 November will share the vision and future of the Platform with representatives of the Platform Partners. This will include a keynote dialogue with Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the OECD, and Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme. Click here to register for the event.

The Impact Management Platform website can be accessed at www.impactmanagementplatform.org

About the Impact Management Platform

The Impact Management Platform (‘Platform’) is a collaboration between leading providers of public good standards and guidance for managing sustainability impacts. Through the Platform, partnering organisations aspire to:

• clarify the meaning and practice of impact management;
• work towards interoperability and fill gaps as needed; and
• have coordinated dialogue with policymakers.

The Impact Management Platform website supports practitioners to manage their sustainability impacts – including the impacts of their investments – by clarifying the actions of impact management and explaining how standards and guidance can be used together to enable a complete impact management practice. The website can be accessed at https://impactmanagementplatform.org/

B Lab’s Note on Usage of the Platform

Core to the platform is the identification of the relevant actions related to impact management, including: governance, strategy, and management approach; set and revise objectives; identify sustainability topics; measure sustainability performance; assess impact; estimate value created; Verify; integrate and act; disclose; and benchmark.

Relevant initiatives for each of these actions are then referenced, allowing users to understand what role each resource plays and identify specific resources based on the specific actions they are seeking to undertake. B Lab’s resources, including B Corp Certification, the B Impact Assessment, and the SDG Action Manager are featured as a subset of the above actions, helping clarify their purpose and how they may be used to complement others. Both the B Impact Assessment and the SDG Action Manager allow enterprises to identify sustainability topics, measure sustainability performance, assess impact, and benchmark their performance, with B Corp Certification also allowing users to verify their performance.

About the founding Partners

Partners planning to work together through the Platform include:
B Lab
Capitals Coalition
CDP
Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB)
Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG)
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative at Harvard Business School (IWAI)
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
Social Value International (SVI)
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
UN Development Programme (UNDP)
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)
UN Global Compact (UNGC)
Value Reporting Foundation (VRF)
World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA)

Descriptions of all these organisations and their logos can be found here.

About B Lab

B Lab is transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. A leader in economic systems change, our global network creates standards, policies, tools, and programs for business, and we certify companies—known as B Corps—who are leading the way. To date, our community includes 280,000 workers in over 4,000 B Corps across 77 countries and 153 industries, and more than 150,000 companies manage their impact with the B Impact Assessment and the SDG Action Manager. To learn more and join the movement, visit https://bcorporation.net/.

Contact 

Jo Fackler
Engagement Lead, Impact Management Project
info@impactmanagementplatform.org
+44 (0) 786 0125 088