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09/18/2024 08:29

Leading impact valuation providers team up to democratize access to Value Factors

Katja Wies Kommunikation
WifOR

GIST Impact and WifOR Institute are launching a new framework to democratize access
to the information needed to make impact accounting a reality.

Two of the leading impact valuation methodology providers have aligned on a common
framework of impacts to address a critical challenge in the sustainability space:
determining what to value, and how – namely, what value factors to use, with which
stakeholders, and in what context. By offering a common framework developed
specifically for the corporate sector, the collaboration aims to make it easy for
businesses to understand valuation and perform these essential calculations.

The comprehensive framework, covering all four capitals (natural, human, social, and
produced), is user-friendly and applicable to all major industries and regions. The
publicly available value factors, in turn, enable a science-based calculation of business
impacts in monetary terms.

The framework and underlying value factors provide businesses, particularly small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a valuable resource to assess their impacts on
the environment, society, and the economy. By offering a set of freely available value
factors for 25 countries, this initiative aims to encourage and support businesses
worldwide in understanding and contextualizing their positive and negative impacts,
providing location-specific and science-based data and insights to guide analysis and
decisions.

This is one of many efforts around the world that are coming together through the
Capitals Coalition – a global collaboration redefining value to transform decision-
making. The Capitals Coalition has curated a global Value Commission, which will be
launching a ‘Governance for Valuation’ document later this month, setting clear
transparency and confidence criteria on how impact is to be defined and stated. As
accounting for value becomes a necessity for businesses and financial institutions, we
are expecting more announcements from the Commissioners and their partners.
This movement towards convergence and transparency in the impact space is in strong
contrast to the fragmented landscape of traditional ESG scores and ratings: the Value
Factors collaboration is fully aligned with organizations like the International
Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI) and the Value Balancing Alliance (VBA), which are
developing a comprehensive, independently governed, public good impact accounting
methodology involving representatives from the Capitals Coalition, GIST Impact, and
WifOR Institute on its Valuation and Technical Practitioner Committee. Other
developers, users, and stakeholders are invited to collaborate with the Capitals
Coalition and the Value Commission in creating a more transparent market and
standardizing the global use and application of value factors.

Quotes
"The leading organizations in the Coalition network, like GIST Impact and WifOR Institute,
are actively stepping forward with solutions that will advance opportunities to account
for what matters to us all. There will be more to come."
Mark Gough, CEO Capitals Coalition

"I am particularly pleased that GIST Impact has collaborated with WifOR Institute, two
organizations who would otherwise be seen as competitors, to help interested
companies, especially SMEs, by publishing our agreed common Value Framework and a
sample set of Value Factors."
Pavan Sukhdev, CEO GIST Impact

"Decision-makers worldwide must balance social, environmental, and economic factors
– for which reliable and transparent data is key. Our joint initiative is a step toward
achieving this transparency to promote responsible action."
Dr. Richard Scholz, Head of Impact Analysis WifOR Institute

"Transparency is essential for the growth and credibility of impact accounting. Aligned
with its ongoing development of independently governed, credible, public good impact
accounting methodologies, IFVI applauds the Capitals Coalition, GIST Impact, and
WifOR Institute on their leadership in providing increased transparency and looks
forward to continued collaboration."
Dan Osusky, Chief Research Officer International Foundation for Valuing Impacts

"I extend my congratulations to GIST Impact and WifOR Institute for this significant
milestone! Impact accounting is an evolving and dynamic field. Enhancing transparency
and making value factors publicly accessible, while inviting others to join in, is crucial
for building credibility and driving adoption. This comprehensive range of value factors
will empower businesses to make more informed decisions that balance financial,
natural, social, and human capital. For standardized and comparable disclosures, we
place our trust in IFVI to adopt the best available methodologies."
Christian Heller, CEO Value Balancing Alliance

Notes to editors
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Value Factor
A value factor is an expression of the relative importance, worth or usefulness of changes
in natural, human, social, and economic or produced capitals to people.

Value Commission
The Value Commission brings together over 30 expert Commissioners from across the
world to drive transparency and accountability for application and use of value factors
and valuations by organizations and businesses.

Capitals Coalition
The Capitals Coalition is a global collaboration redefining value to transform decision
making. It sits at the heart of an extensive global network that has united to advance the
capitals approach to decision-making.

GIST Impact
GIST Impact is a leading impact data and analytics provider and has been measuring
and valuing corporate impacts for more than 16 years. With a team of 100+ scientists,
engineers, data scientists and environmental economists, GIST Impact works with the
world’s largest companies and investors, offering market-leading impact platforms and
impact datasets on over 15,000 companies.

WifOR Institute
WifOR is an independent economic research institute, founded in 2009 as a spin-off
from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. As experts in macroeconomic
analysis, its research focuses on labor markets, sustainability, and health. Through its
studies, WifOR’s mission is to enable data-based solutions to labor market challenges,
set global standards in Impact Measurement, and highlight the value of health
investments worldwide.

International Foundation for Valuing Impacts
The International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI) is an independent nonprofit
bridging the gap between financial accounting and impact measurement. At the core of
IFVI’s mission and vision is the need for a comprehensive, credible, and open access
impact accounting methodology that accounts for a company’s full contribution to
society. In 2022, IFVI and the Value Balancing Alliance (VBA) established a partnership
to develop this methodology as well as to advocate for adoption globally.

Value Balancing Alliance
The Value Balancing Alliance e.V. is an alliance of multinational companies with the
common goal to develop a standardized methodology to ensure greater sustainability
and transparency in business. As a business driven, member lead organization, the
Alliance translates environmental and social impacts into comparable financial data,
with the ambition of changing the way company performance is measured and valued
so as to enable decision makers to act consciously.

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Contact for scientific information:

Dr. Richard Scholz
Head of Impact Analysis
richard.scholz@wifor.com

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More information:

http://Access the value factors here: https://www.wifor.com/en/impact-valuation-factors/

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Dr. Richard Scholz

WifOR Institute

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Pavan Sukhdev

GIST Impact

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Criteria of this press release:
Journalists
Economics / business administration, Environment / ecology
transregional, national
Cooperation agreements, Transfer of Science or Research
English

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