Today, there is a wide variety of methods to assess companies’ impacts on society, people, and nature. Our goal is to create a standardised method to ensure greater sustainability, transparency and comparability in business. We are developing this method in iterative steps. During the last year, we have created version 0.1 of the method and tested it in our member firms. The feedback of our members was published in our first pilot study in May 2021 and will be incorporated in version 0.2 of our impact valuation method. Version 0.1 of our papers comprises four papers: The General Method Paper, two papers on environmental and socio-economic impact, and the extended input-output modelling.
In 2020, eleven members of the Value Balancing Alliance conducted the world’s first pilot testing of its kind. They tested the VBA methodology in their companies against several criteria: feasibility, scalability, robustness, comparability, connectivity, and relevance. The focus was on the impact companies have on society. This first piloting is an important step towards a standardised methodology for impact analysis across all industries. Above all, it has shown that the methodology can be used successfully with reasonable effort and how the long-term value contribution of companies can be compared.
Read moreA joint article by Christian Heller, CEO of the Value Balancing Alliance, Oliver Schwebel, Managing Director of Wirtschaftsförderung Frankfurt GmbH and Gerhard Wiesheu, President of Frankfurt Main Finance for the German Magazine Zeitschrift für das gesamte Kreditwesen.
Out of 40 nominations from 23 countries this year, we are thrilled to be selected as the Honorees of the UNCTAD ISAR Honours 2021 in the international category for the “VBA Impact Statement and Integrated Accounts” initiative.
For us, this is a huge stimulus to further drive our work, enabling decision-makers to be changemakers for a sustainable economy.