social impact archives - Transcendent

B Corp companies growing at an average annual rate of 30%

28 June 202231 March 2022 by Cristina García del Valle

The B Corp movement, of which Transcendent is a part, is consolidating in Spain by incorporating 63% more companies than in 2020.

Comprised of companies that meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability, the B Corp movement continues to grow. In 2021, the increase was 63% compared to 2020..

Specifically, 31 new companies have joined the B Corp community in Spain and a total of 110 companies now make up the BCorp community in our country.

These companies grow on average by 30% annually.The European Commission's report, based on data from a sample of 700 European companies belonging to this business community, is based on a sample of 700 European companies.

The movement has also grown in other countries. In 2021, 947 companies worldwide were BCorp certified in 2021, 28% more than in 2020.

In total, the global B Corp community closes 2021 with 4,400 companies from 153 industries and 77 countries worldwide. All of them add up to a turnover of more than 125 billion euros on an international scaleof which more than 5 billion from Spanish B Corpsaccording to the annual report 2021 which has just published BLab Spain.

Companies more committed to the environment and social development

B Corp companies are leaders in implementing more environmentally and socially friendly practices in their businesses.

In terms of environmentthe 23% of the B Corps have reduced emissions and 23% have partially or fully offset their emissions by 2021.

In addition, over the past year, they have managed to eliminate or divert nearly 3 million metric tons of waste. In the same vein, the B Corps' 77%s use renewable energy, the 70%s engage in water conservation practices and the 56%s monitor and record their water consumption.

In terms of positive social and employment impact73% of the companies in the movement include women in management positions and 45% have women in middle management positions, thus promoting equality. In addition, more than 66% of these companies are committed to inclusion by hiring people from vulnerable groups, about 90% offer additional financial benefits to their employees and about 70% of them offer paid time off to all or part of their professionals.

2022, the year of purpose-driven companies

As the study states "2022 ESG Trends to Watch"In the new year, sustainability will become even more important, especially ESG trends (ESG Trends 2022) driven by MSCI.Environmental, social and corporate governance, -(Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance). In recent years, such trends are not only being mainstreamed by companies in multiple sectors, but have also attracted the attention of investors and legislative bodies.

In addition, according to the First Barometer of Business Purpose in SpainThe APD y TranscendentAlmost 70% of companies have a defined Purpose. 84% of them have it written down and shared with employees and almost 9 out of 10 believe that it brings value to the business and contributes to improving the company's profitability.

New legal form for purpose-driven companies

In Spain, B Lab Spain, organisations and prominent Spanish personalities are calling for the creation of a new legal form ("Sociedades de Beneficio e Interés Común - SBIC") that recognises purpose-driven companies with the aim of driving the transition towards an inclusive, regenerative and sustainable economy in Spain.

Moreover, in the future, companies will increasingly measure the environmental and social impact of their activities. Already today, many companies are assessing their impacts through impact measurement and management tools. As Pablo Sánchez, executive director of B Lab Spain explains, "more than 190,000 companies around the world already use the B Impact Assessment, a free service that B Lab makes available to all companies to measure and manage their impact on society and the planet and that helps them make decisions to improve their environmental and social indicators. And the future trend we see is that this figure will continue to grow.

You can access the annual report.

Business purpose drives value generation

17 October 20222 February 2022 by Cristina García del Valle

The purpose is a strategic lever The value creation potential and profitability is well established. Companies with a defined and integrated purpose, whose approach is to focus on improving their financial performance and the common good, achieve a better performancea highest market valuation and create more shareholder value compared to the rest.

This need to incorporate ESG (social, environmental and governance) aspects is a trend that has no way back and will force companies to transform themselves by making impact a management tool.

"Purpose increasingly demands the professionalisation of business leaders".

A new committed leadership

The activation of purpose and the management of social, environmental and governance impacts is becoming an element that demands a further professionalisation to business leaders.

To address this issue, José Antonio LabarraCEO of ROADISa leading company in the development, operation and management of transport infrastructure assets, recently met with Ángel Pérez AgenjoTranscendent's managing partner, at a meeting organised by APD on the Business Purpose.

Purpose as a management tool and a lever for value creation

The five benefits of purpose in business

There are a number of competitive advantages that differentiate a company that works and activates the Purpose from others. These include:

Increases profitability and market value. Purposeful companies improve their market value faster than others. However, purpose has a positive impact that goes far beyond a company's bottom line as it generates many other benefits as well.
Improves reputation and legitimacy to operate: By publicly stating its purpose, a company demonstrates its commitment and the benefits it brings to its stakeholders and society as a whole, and this clearly enhances its reputation. Companies that define and activate their purpose therefore significantly reduce the risk of corporate scandal eroding their licence to operate.
It allows you to manage and retain talent: Business purpose is a differentiating element that can be beneficial for all three aspects since, from a Human Resources management point of view, it constitutes a real strategy for the management of human resources. employer branding.
Customer loyalty: It emphasises the unique and distinctive contribution that the company makes to the big issues we face. For that reason, it has the potential to generate stronger relationships with its customers, who tend to be more attracted to companies that convey authenticity and that they consider to be worthy of their trust. when a company sets and activates its Purpose it arouses interest and attraction from its customers.
Investor interest is increasing: Investors are increasingly integrating ESG criteria into their decisions and are interested in the social and environmental performance of companies.

In the case of ROADIS, its Purpose is in the value creation in the communities in which it operates through profitable investments in major infrastructure projects. To do this, it relies on 4 main attributes: ethics, prosperity, innovation and security".

The transformation process towards sustainability

In 2019, the company headed by Labarra decided to take a step forward and adopt the sustainability as part of its business model and, above all, as a lever for value creation in order to become an active part of the transition towards a more responsible and sustainable economic model.

According to its CEO "we defined a Cross-cutting Master Sustainability Plan to all areas of the company by offering a framework for action that would allow us to have a solid position in the business context, as well as to become an active part of the transition to a more responsible and sustainable economic model".

For his part, Pérez Agenjo emphasises that "the market rewards the purpose-driven companies and punishes those that do not. That is already part of the new business paradigm. And therefore, for the 43% of the companies sustainability policies and management of ESG parameters have become a urgent issue".

Measuring impact, a key tool to avoid the "Impactwashing

Pérez Agenjo assures that establish an impact measurement system In the company, setting indicators and putting them at the heart of corporate strategy is one of the first steps to combat the already well-known Impactwashing.

For the CEO of ROADIS quantifying and measuring impacts is essential to understand and analyse the impact generated on both society and the environment. Quantification is not easy, but it is necessary because what cannot be measured cannot be improved.

"Quantifying and measuring impacts is essential to understand and analyse the impact generated".

To this end, they have set up a system to measure the company's impact, and they have set indicators with the aim of putting them at the heart of corporate strategy.

"At ROADIS we have developed a methodology for measuring economic, social and environmental impact of our assets in order to identify the medium and long-term effects of our assets on users, employees, communities, the environment, suppliers, institutions and any other relevant stakeholders in the environments in which we operate. It is a valuable tool we use to identify and quantify impacts from a broader perspective. A methodology based on the best practices of the Impact Management Project (IMP)," Labarra concludes.

Are companies contributing to social transformation?

20 June 20221 February 2022 by María Herrero

The first report on the Social Transformation of companies necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) makes it clear that there is still a long way to go.

The study assesses the world's most influential companies on the social impact they generate in particular in three areas: human rights, decent work and ethical conduct.

After analysing the top 1000 companies out of a total of 2000 from 70 countries on five continents and accounting for a quarter of the world's Gross Domestic Product, the main conclusion is clear: the effort of the companies is in most cases low.

Among the conclusions most prominent it should be noted:

Only one company out of the 1000 companies assessed meets the 18 requirements defined by the WBA.
Only 1% scored more than 15 out of 20 points. Half of the companies scored disappointing (between 0 and 5 points).

*Map of the 1000 companies analysed by the WBA*

Human Rights and Decent Work, unfinished business

In terms of Human Rights 3 out of 4 companies 78% out of the 1,000 companies assessed obtained a score of "zero in the three human rights monitoring indicators (HRDD-Human Resources Due Diligence criteria). While 55% of companies publish a serious commitment to respect human rights, less than half of them demonstrate this through real evidence. It is one thing to state a commitment; it is another to deliver on that commitment with data and demonstrable evidence.

With regard to Decent Workonly the 4% of companies published specific targets or claimed that they were already paying workers a living wage. Only 4% of companies report having control over the number of hours worked and only 4% show that they identify pay inequalities, revealing pay differentials between men and women by employee category.

With regard to the Ethical Conduct Only 20% of companies publish a high-level approach to lobbying and 8% disclose their spending on lobbying and influence (lobbying policies). Similarly, no disclosure of their tax strategies was found for 75% of companies, while only 9% of companies disclose the amount of taxes paid by each jurisdiction in which the company is resident for tax purposes.

With regard to the information published by companies, the absence of meaningful information on social issues is striking. The most common score across the sample is 0 points out of 20.with 116 out of 1000 companies failing to meet any of the 18 indicators.

About the World Benchmarking Alliance

The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) is an organisation not-for-profit based in the Netherlands founded in 2018 under the conviction that the contribution of the The private sector is critical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs) of the United Nations.

In order to assess the contribution of major companies to the achievement of the SDGs, the WBA's first consultation was launched in September 2017, coinciding with the 72nd UN General Assembly.

Over the past 5 years, WBA has positioned itself as an organisation that has internationally recognised; and, to date, has the support of various funding partners including governments, private foundations and other corporationsmore than 250 allied entities and a staff of 85 employees.

You can access the full report here.

DECISIVE MONTHS FOR THE COMPANY'S JOURNEY TOWARDS IMPACT

11 February 202117 September 2020 by Ana Ruiz

September has arrived. The strangest September we can almost all remember. But September means beginnings for most of us. In the midst of the return to routine September brings us beginnings. What beginnings await us this year? Are there going to be big disruptions in the business world in this different autumn? How do we prepare?

These are some of the inertias that we are already detecting and that we believe will be consolidated in the coming months.:

1. Impact investing will weather the storm better

From a financial perspective, impact investment funds are demonstrating better performance and greater resilience than other funds. This reality reinforces the importance of this type of investment, making it a lever for the transformation of the entire business sector.

2. Consumers are changing their consumer preferences

And that change is accelerating with the pandemic. While there will continue to be major inconsistencies in consumer buying habits and the duality - convenience/ immediacy versus sustainability/impact - will remain, the trend towards more sustainable products and services is gaining momentum.

3. The European roadmap to a sustainable economy

The European Green Deal, together with a Just Transition mechanism that will allocate EUR 100 billion over the period 2021-2027 to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the transition to a low-carbon economy, will drive the transformation of business.

4. Business as a key player in the recovery

The idea that business has a leading role to play in the recovery is gaining momentum. In the face of unprecedented economic uncertainty, many companies are becoming the reference point for their employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.

5. The professionalisation of purpose

Only 7% of Fortune 500 CEOs believe their companies should "focus primarily on making profits and not be distracted by social goals. For while capitalism has catalysed enormous progress, it has struggled to address complex issues such as climate change and inequality," according to McKinsey's study. "Purpose: Shifting from why to how".

6. Short-term vs. long-term revenue generation

The economic impact of COVID in many sectors of activity will require that the corporate social impact actions that are implemented are more focused on generating immediate income in the short term, minimising costs. This means moving away from traditional CSR activities, which in many cases act as a cost centre, towards actions with a direct impact on improving the bottom line.

The world we are moving towards will undoubtedly be different from the one we have known so far. Company executives have the opportunity to rethink and reimagine their purpose and the role their companies will play in the future. They can continue with their traditional lines of business or explore new business models that are more adapted to the new habits and preferences of consumers, who will undoubtedly have changed and who will demand that purpose and social impact are at the heart of their activity.

This will drive the company's transformation towards corporate social impact.

Who will succeed?

All signs point to the success of those companies that manage to incorporate sustainability and purpose at a strategic level in the organisation and turn it into a competitive advantage.

In the face of short-termism, rigour and measurement

During the pandemic, many companies have put in place actions to support their stakeholders according to their needs. It is now time to put structure and rigour in place to ensure that these efforts do not remain a short-term, contingency exercise and to make the business sector more resilient in the long term.

It is also time to value their contribution to society by measuring the impact generated and acquiring tangible commitments in the medium and long term with society and the environment.

In any case, we see clearly that what matters is consistency and coherence. This is not the time for Green Washing. It is the time for values and purpose. In capital letters. From the inside. From the top. In every process. In every department. Throughout the value chain. Implemented professionally and from within the organisation. To resist. To move forward. To improve. Find out more at our blog!

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