The Harvard Business School, in partnership with the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) and the Impact Management Project (IMP), has launched the Impact-Weigthed Accounts Initiative (IWAI) with the mission to “drive the creation of financial accounts that reflect a company’s financial, social, and environmental performance”.
Impact-Weighted Accounts are financial statements where line items have been added which demonstrate the positive and negative impacts an organisation has on people and planet. By monetising the impact generated and including this into financial accounts, IWAs allow corporates and investors to include a more holistic measure of the value they create into their decision making.
Therefore, IWAs represents a complimentary addition to the current ESG providers enabling pioneering corporates to capture not only outputs but also outcomes, as well as to integrate these changes into their decision making process.
The Harvard Business School has published research on the IWA methodology focussed on environment impact, employment impact and product impact.
Many front-running companies have already signed up, and only a few slots are still available for corporations and investors to engage in testing the methodology with support of the IWAI team.
We at EVPA’ Corporate Initiative see a huge need and opportunity for corporates to accelerate their sustainable and inclusive business path. We therefore invite all corporates and corporate social investors to take part in shaping the next generation of impact measurement and be on the forefront of a better, more transparent impact reporting for the private sector.
Interested to join? Then please express your interest by sending an email to ImpactWeightedAccounts [at] hbs.edu