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“Total Impact Valuation” – Monetizing the Enterprise’s “Cost-Benefit Analysis” of the Impact on Society? This is for CEOs – Advice From The Conference Board Today’s question for corporate CEO’s: Have you examined your company’s “Total Impact Valuation,” a new approach being advanced by The Conference Board, wherein the enterprises’ impact on society is monetized (cost/benefit evaluated and value attached)? Such firms as BASF (the German chemical giant), cement industry leaders Holcim/Ambjua Cement and LafargeHolcim, Samsung, Akzonobel (materials), ABN AMRO (Holland, financial services), Volvo (vehicles), and Argo (materials, Colombia) have been doing something along these lines and reporting results for a few years now on web sites, in sustainability reports, in financial statements, in a “total contribution report” or “value-added statement”, and by other means. Some of these disclosures are third party assured (Argo’s is by Deloitte) and otherwise guided; the big accounting firms are involved (PwC and KPMG included). This appears to us to have the potential to take corporate sustainability reporting to expanded (new) levels for at least the publicly-traded large caps - that is, if enough investors jump aboard the concept and ask for the information. (Think about public discussion of the company’s “plus or minus” impact on society beyond the fences.) Thomas Singer, Corporate Leadership research leader at The Conference Board, presents findings of his sampling of firms (those identified above) and shares his perspectives on the concept in Chief Executive Magazine – it’s our Top Story for you this issue. BASF shares its “Value to Society” model (there’s a link to this in the article). The company, explains Singer, monetizes more than 20 different types of environmental, social and economic impacts, including direct and indirect suppliers and even customer industries. Author Thomas Singer turns out a good amount of strategic advice to company leaders and has been focusing more in his Director Notes on ESG and corporate sustainability. There’s links to his papers and publications for you in the link. A major drawback here in the U.S.A.: there is no standard benchmark for measuring progress or lack of, and to guide reporting; there is in turn no way to compare company “A” to “B” for investors, ratings analysts and others. So what do you think – is this a “we’re a long way from Kansas, Toto” moment for corporate leaders in terms of expectations of shareholders and stakeholders for what the companies will share in their disclosures of the future? (The “Kansas” reference being the bad old days practices of chemicals and other companies “externalizing” costs to society for environmental mismanagement and minimizing the actual costs of clean up in financial reports.) The practice got underway in Europe – and we will be watching to see if U.S.-based public companies pick up on the concept. Especially those where their foreign peers have the modeling and techniques underway. That is what happened with corporate sustainability and ESG reporting over time. Top Stories CEOs Need To Put This Sustainability Trend On Their Radar Sustainability: Forward Momentum! For Your Attention: From the The Editors' Global Scans At Retail… More Retailers “Stepping Up” On Supply Chain Sustainability Sustainable Fashion Only Works When It's Inclusive In the Business Sector… Embracing Sustainability in the Business World MCI puts sustainability first in annual report Making Sense of Sustainability in Culture: Movies, Marketing and Metaphor In Food, Beverages, Agriculture… Power & politics in cocoa: Are chocolate’s colonial roots moulding sustainability? Opinion | 50 Groups Denounce Roundtable on Sustainable Beef as Greenwash Critics Respond to U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef Framework Palm oil sustainability group suspends Nestle on failure to submit report And from around the globe… Asian trade bucks the protectionist trend – but struggles with sustainability 10 sustainable products you need in your life In sustainability search, Kenya studies the unknown depths of its aquifers How Technology And Sustainability Converge In The New Home Marketplace The Lighthouse of Sustainability Investors: here's what a sustainability leader looks like — and acts like Our Focus This Week on A Range of ESG Topics & Issues – More Things For You to Think About What is sustainable, anyway? China Emits More Carbon Dioxide Than The U.S. and EU Combined WWD List: These Are the 25 Highest-Paid Executives in Fashion Global warming could raise temperatures TWICE as high as previous estimates, with tropical forests set to turn into fire-ravaged savannas, new research warns The power of more than one woman on a board Headlines for You From the Corporate Sector - Both Positive & Negative There's a Lot Going On... Oshkosh Corporation Releases Fiscal 2017 Sustainability Report Corbion links sustainability performance to interest rate of its new EUR 300 million Revolving Credit Facility Kimberly-Clark Announces Progress to Sustainability 2022 Goals MCI puts sustainability first in annual report Nestlé Offered Permit To Continue Taking Water From California Stream Disney wins antitrust approval to purchase most of Fox Amazon could radically change how you get prescriptions Foxconn breaking ground on Wisconsin plant it received $4 billion to build Lawsuit alleges Hormel, other companies, illegally inflated pork prices Facebook reveals data-sharing partnerships, ties to Chinese firms in 700-page document dump GE's Latin American CEO, 21 others, arrested in Brazil for fraud Credit Suisse to pay $77M to settle corruption charges News & Opinion: Asset Managers, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds How Norway’s sovereign wealth fund protected UK jobs after the 2008 crisis City pension funds stumble to post weak 1.7% return in past year
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