Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards have grown in popularity with increasing consumer consciousness and regulations. COVID-19 has also played a huge role in accelerating the integration of ESG initiatives into business strategies.
The Mills Fabrica has launched the “Techstyle Impact Playbook – Strategies & Measurement Tools” focusing on the fashion and food industries. This playbook acts as a starting guide for startups and corporates to create ESG goals, define their strategy and measure their impact, while offering advice for investors to effectively evaluate and communicate their portfolio’s impact.
This report aims to provide a guide for startups and corporates to design their impact / ESG goals, strategy & measurement; as well as for investors to measure & communicate on portfolio impact.
Identify impact focus areas – What do we want to achieve
- Identify ultimate social / environmental impact
- Embed ESG impact in business models:
- Identify main income stream
- Directly generate impact from products
- Use profits to support impact projects
Measure your impact – Select impact assessment tools & metrics
- United Nations SDGs
- B Impact Assessment
- Cradle to Cradle Certified TM
- Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
- Natural Step (ABCD) Method
- HIGG BRM
- GRI Standards
- Impact Multiple of Money
Communicate your sustainability impact – Reporting & advocating impact
- Impact assessment
- Product development: ingredients & production
- Consumer engagement: competition
- Crossover partnership
Companies can communicate their impact with consumers or partners in 4 main methods: impact measurement, product development, consumer engagement, and crossover partnership. In this report, we have illustrated the concept with case studies of several sustainability focused brands: Allbirds, Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia, PepsiCo and Bain Capital Double Impact.
In the appendix, we also list out the different impact assessment tools, resources and impact investors.
If you are interested to find out more, please download the full report of the Techstyle Impact Playbook.