ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how organisations measure and manage their social and environmental impacts. In particular, it focuses on illustrating some impact measurement methods used within organisations to make decisions that might improve the short, medium and long-term economic, environmental and social conditions of the communities in which they operate. The chapter describes Capgemini’s impact methodological approach developed in 2022 to measure projects’ Green House Gases (GHG) emissions.
Section 1 provides a literature review on the different meanings of impact and its implementation within organisations. Section 2 outlines the basic theoretical assumptions of the “Theory of Change”, which defines the evaluation basis for most of the impact measurement systems currently popular on the international scene. Section 3 sheds light on the most relevant steps to develop an impact measurement system. Section 4 describes the impact methodology developed by Capgemini. Section 5 provides some concluding thoughts on the topic.
1. Introduction. – 2. Understanding and defining organisations’ impact. – 3. The Theory of Change (ToC). – 4. The main steps to design an impact management process. – 5. The Capgemini case as a relevant actor in the definition of new best practices for measuring carbon impacts. – 6. Measuring impact: a methodology to inform transformative project design. – 7. Conclusions. – References.
