Imfino News

January 15, 2020 - A new report from the Impact Investing Institute and Deloitte explores current practice in technology-enabled impact reporting. The report calls for organisations and investors to make a greater investment in systems and people to deliver transparent, consistent comparable measurement and reporting of environmental and social impacts. All stakeholders need to work with the technology and data providers, focused on this area, to fill the reporting resource gap and accelerate progress.

The report was commissioned by the Social Impact Investing Implementation Taskforce (now the Impact Investing Institute), sponsored by Deloitte and DCMS, and produced in collaboration with major UK corporates, investors and data providers.

Sarah Gordon, Chief Executive of the Impact Investing Institute, says:

“More organisations across the investment chain are making a bold commitment to social and environmental impact, but for this commitment to be truly meaningful, organisations need to set clear targets and measure their progress towards them. Only through carefully considered impact reporting can this be achieved. This report was commissioned by our forerunners, the Social Impact Investing Implementation Taskforce. It is a clarion call for all organisations to clarify their most material impacts, design measurement and reporting approaches and to do so collaboratively, for the benefit of us all.”

Nick Turner, partner at Deloitte, adds:

“Social and environmental impact measurement and reporting is crucial for rewarding organisations that are taking steps to change their operations. Organisations and investors need to work with technology and data providers to improve their approaches to measurement, invest appropriately in this and account for their progress. The resulting transparency will spur on organisations to make the transformative changes needed to realise the ambitions of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and address the climate crisis.”

The report from the Impact Investing Institute and Deloitte, Technology-enabled Impact Reporting across the Investment Chain, discusses:

–         Why demand for impact reporting is growing. In the face of mounting global challenges for people and planet, organisations across the investment chain are being called upon to declare their intent to make a positive environmental and social impact and to be authentic and robust in doing so.

–         How impact reporting practice needs to evolve. For reporting organisations, impact measurement and reporting should be rooted in the understanding that environmental and social impacts are critical to their business model. It should be transparent, consistent and comparable and it should be well resourced and influence key decision making.

–         The critical enablers for future success. A technology infrastructure is required to underpin impact-related data collection, which will require close collaboration between reporting organisations, investors and technology and data providers.

The full report can be read here.

This report follows a previous paper published by the Social Impact Investing Implementation Taskforce and Deloitte, the Impact Reporting Landscape Report. The Impact Investing Institute will continue to pursue initiatives to enable better environmental and social impact reporting. For more information, visit impactinvest.org.uk.