ABSTRACT
The emergence of global sustainability standards and standardized forms of financial accounting for sustainability metrics have helped bridge the gap between corporate commitments and the operational needs of businesses. Prototyping – as a way to build operational scenarios, validate assumptions and redefine the challenges and opportunities that adopting impact targets entails – can help sustain the learning curve surrounding metrics and outcomes for the long haul. Investors are increasingly seeking to integrate environmental and social insights in the evaluation and management of their capital. To that extent, they are struggling to establish a baseline for quantifiable impact beyond financials. Although relying on forward-looking estimates, measures such as the Impact Multiple of Money employ a social science methodology to provide an estimate of the economic value of targeted societal outcomes, while also evaluating elements of the risks involved in achieving those outcomes. The definition of an “impact curve” of investment opportunities is introduced. By extension, the process of actively incorporating the map of risk tolerances across ecosystem participants, including those of investors, makes it possible to better define sustainability commitments, address acceptable time delays and set intermediate goals.
