Creating social value: why it matters for business

Social impact as one of the three domains of sustainability is an often-overlooked part of the sustainability agenda. Now more than ever, social issues and impacts are coming into focus:

• Compliance and regulation in Europe and beyond is increasing through Directives like the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and CSDDD (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive)
• Companies want to go beyond looking only at negative impacts and towards understanding social value provided to their stakeholders
• In the information age, it is no longer acceptable to have human rights infringements in the value chain and company reputations are on the line

With all these pressures that companies face, how can they start taking action?

How we can help

We can provide support tailored based on your company’s starting point through offering services in the following areas:

1. Capacity building on social impact assessment: We provide training and support with your first case study through applying the Social Value Assessment methodology. This can be tailored to your knowledge needs and includes modules such as: regulatory context, key concepts in social impact measurement, materiality asssessment, data (availability, collection, sources and quality), impact assessment, interpretation and implementation into business practice.
2. Conducting a social impact assessment: Carrying out a social impact assessment (e.g., materiality assessment, social value assessment etc.) using chosen state-of-the-art methodologies, data and tools available in the field. This can be done considering the following: regulatory requirements, data availability, traceability of the value chain and focus topics of the company.
3. Co-developing a methodological approach for integrating social impacts into business practice: A fit-for-purpose approach based on state-of-the-art methodologies and sector-specific guidelines, providing a clear roadmap for regulation-aligned impacts. This includes actionable steps to integrate the approach into common practice, whilst enabling compliance with key regulatory requirements such as a focus on human rights or due diligence compliance.
4. Step-by-step social impact assessment Guide and Toolbox: A single source of truth consolidating the essential know-how optimizing for your team’s usability. A suite of essential tools, including a data processing/collection template and a reporting template, to jumpstart assessments.

Why work with PRé?

Over the past 10+ years, PRé Sustainability has been involved in multiple projects to define better how to measure social impacts across the value chain. PRé initiated the Social Value Initiative in 2013 when a group of industry partners including Corbion, BASF, BMW, LG Chem and Fuji Oil among others came together to develop a sector-agnostic methodology. PRé was the knowledge partner and facilitator of the initiative, defining social topics and indicators and testing these in case studies with the industry partners. Over the years, the methodology and other materials have become one of the most used in the field due to the merging of evidence-based indicators and a practical and structured way of assessing.

We have been using this and other emerging methodologies in the field to deliver fact-based insights into social impacts relevant to our clients’ sectors.

At PRé, we have been using life cycle thinking to inform a broader view of sustainability impacts which include how the lifecycle impacts of products and services affect people. We can tie social assessments to environmental LCAs to help inform business decisions across sustainability domains.

Curious about how we can help you? Get in touch.