Golden Rule 1: Do Not Rate Individually
We have identified the most significant social and environmental impacts for each industry, which we call ‘Topics’.
An impact assessment is then conducted for a specific company on a specific topic, ultimately published on the platform.
All industries have a Core Business Impact analysis about their core products & services, as well as 5 positive or negative externalities:
Taxes,
Job Creation,
GHG Emissions,
Employee Inclusion, and
Employee Gender Diversity.
Then, there are industry-specific positive and negative ‘externalities’, i.e., additional topics offered and written on, such as Water Pollution, Environmental Impacts from Material Sourcing, and Supply Chain Empowerment.
To learn more about topics and other frameworks we have implemented, click here: /knowledge-centre/our-frameworks.
(warning emoji) It is essential to rate the value and the severity of the specific analysis you are reading only, without considering other topics for the company.
You must avoid taking into consideration other impacts the company has when rating the analysis. It is important to remain neutral and unbiased without taking into account any personal experience with the company, scandals you may have heard about, or other analyses you read on the platform.
For example, you should not consider the issues surrounding Nestlé's privatization of water when rating the assessment of the company's contribution to feeding the world.
When you do the ratings for one analysis, it should be on that specific analysis/impact only. But, to conduct a proper benchmarking, it is important to consider the absolute impacts from other companies on the same topic.
A tool that may help you with this general overview is the bubble graph. Using it you can have an overall idea of the topics covered for a company as well as how the industry is performing.
Below you will find an image of Nestlé’s bubble graph. This is the distribution of the ratings made on each analysis published pertaining to a topic.
The bubble graph below can help you visualise all of the impacts the company is having on the environment and society, helping you locate the impact of the note you are rating in the best position. Is the company's impact on gender inclusion greater in severity than its impact on job creation? Ask yourself these sorts of questions to find the perfect location for the impact rated.
Don't hesitate to voice your opinion of the company by ratings its various environmental and social impacts.
The topics belong to wider themes, which can then be compared to the company’s peer group. Other bases for comparison are the:
UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
ILG
Products vs. Processes