1. Impact

Impact

Definition

In a general sense, the term impact(s) is used to describe a causal relationship between two or more factors. In the context of impact management, impact refers to:

Impact(s)

The effect(s) of organisations’ actions on people and the natural environment

Impact(s) can be positive or negative, intended or unintended and direct or indirect.

People and the natural environment can be considered as the objects of impact(s), whereas organisations (enterprises, investors and financial institutions) are the sources of impact(s).

Impacts occur across a range of topics and result from inputs, activities and outputs, which can collectively be referred to as drivers.

Figure 1: Linking impacts with the objects, subjects, drivers and sources

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Commentary

• Fundamental to understanding the concept of impact(s) is the focus on the results that derive from an organisation’s actions, rather than the organisation’s actions themselves (such as its activities, inputs and/or outputs).
• All types of organisations can produce both positive and negative impacts, regardless of their purpose, vision and strategy.
• The Platform previously published the following definition of impact: “A change in an aspect of people’s well-being or the condition of the natural environment caused by an organisation.” The new definition was chosen for simplicity, but the two definitions are substantively equivalent. The notion of well-being is now introduced under subject of impact.
• In the management of sustainability-related issues, the term “impact” can be used in different ways to what is set out in the definition above. Here, the term “impact” may be used in a context where the object is not necessarily people or the natural environment, as found in the definition above. It could, for example, be used to describe the effects of certain actions on an organisation’s financial performance (in this case, the organisation is the “object”). However, it is the definition above that is used in the context of impact management.

Partner definitions

As apparent in the table below, the wording of the Partner’s definitions of impact may vary. However, the intention and spirit of the definitions largely align with the consensus definition above. The various definitions are listed in the table below.

Organisation	Resource(s)	Audience(s)	Definition
Capitals Coalition	Conceptual Framework for Sustainability Reporting	All organisations	The positive or negative contribution to one or more dimensions of well-being
Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)	IRIS+	All organisations	Impact is a change in an important positive or negative outcome for people or the planet. Impact can be defined, described, and measured through five dimensions. For more information see IRIS+ and the 5 dimensions of impact.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)	GRI Standards Glossary 2018	All organisations	In the GRI Standards, unless otherwise stated, ‘impact’ refers to the effect an organisation has on the economy, the environment, and/or society, which in turn can indicate its contribution (positive or negative) to sustainable development
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC)	Briefing note: Development results: An overview of results measurement and management	Development institutions	Positive and negative, primary and secondary, long-term effects produced by development interventions
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	Policy Guide on Social Impact Measurement for the Social and Solidarity Economy	All organisations	A change in people’s well-being or the condition of the natural environment that can be attributed to an organisation
Social Value International (SVI)	Social Value International Principles	Enterprises	The amount of change in an outcome (an aspect of well-being) that is caused by (attributed to) your activities
Taskforce on Nature-related Finance Disclosure (TNFD) Beta Framework	TNFD’s definitions of impacts	All organisations	Changes in the state of nature, which may result in changes to the capacity of nature to provide social and economic functions. Impacts can be positive or negative. They can be the result of an organisation’s or another party’s actions and can be direct, indirect or cumulative.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	SDG Impact Standard – Glossary	All organisations	Changes to aspects of wellbeing as experienced by people and/or planet caused by the organisation through its decisions and actions in its own operations and through its supply and value chains and its business relationships. Impacts can be positive or negative, intended or unintended, direct or indirect.
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Impact Protocol	Banks	The effects of the bank’s business activities on the environment, people, and economies

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The sources of impact

Definition:

Sources of impact

In the context of impact management, enterprises, investors and financial institutions (in short, “organisations”) can be thought of as the sources of impact. This is depicted in the diagram below.

Commentary:

• Many types of organisations can differ in a variety of ways: by size, sector, sustainability and impact objectives, whether they are publicly owned or privately owned, listed or non-listed. Whatever their type, all organisations can have positive and/or negative impacts.

• While all organisations can have positive and negative impacts on people and the natural environment, the exact objects and subjects of impact(s) associated with different organisations may vary, depending on their specific characteristics.

• Organisations are not the only sources of impact. People and the natural environment in themselves can also be sources of impact, and their respective activities or workings (e.g. nature and weather related events) can cause or contribute to social and/or environmental impacts (just like organisations’ activities do).

Partner definitions:

The Partners’ resources focus on a variety of organisations (i.e. sources of impact). Some are applicable to all kinds of organisations, others are specifically focused on a sub-set such as investors or financial institutions.

Organisation	Resource(s)	Scope (sources of impact)
B Lab	Enterprise Guides	Small, medium, large and multi-national enterprises
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNE Guidelines)	Multinational enterprises. The Guidelines state that they represent good practice for all types of enterprises.
OECD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	Impact Standards for Financing Sustainable Development	Donors, development finance institutions (DFIs) and private sector partners
UNDP	SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises	Micro, small, medium and large corporates; state-owned enterprises; non-profit organisations; and foundations
UNDP	SDG Impact Standards for Private Equity Funds	Private equity funds; venture capital funds; and debt funds
UNDP	SDG Impact Standards for Bond Issuers	Bond issuers (public, private, financial institutions, project special purpose vehicles (SPVs), etc.); as well as other debt instruments (e.g. loans)
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Principles for Responsible Banking and Principles for Sustainable Insurance	Commercial banks; insurance and reinsurance companies

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Impact drivers

Definition:

Impact driver(s)

The inputs, activities and outputs of organisations that intentionally or unintentionally cause or contribute to impacts

Impact drivers can be thought of as an organisation’s inputs, (e.g. the use of raw materials it needs to source), activities (the provision of goods and services, procurement, company policies) and outputs (products, by-products and waste), which may have positive and/or negative impacts on people and the natural environment.1

Commentary:

• The specific drivers of impact(s) within an organisation will vary depending on the industry or sector that an organisation belongs to. These are also a key determinant of the levers available to organisations to manage their impacts.

For example: a bank may consider its portfolio composition as a key driver, with its activities (such as client screening and engagement) as the core levers for managing impact. For a manufacturing company, drivers and levers revolve around the sourcing of materials and the production processes.

Partner definitions:

The Partner’s resources identify impact drivers relative to the specific sources of impact that they cover.

Organisation	Resource(s)	Audience	Definition
Capitals Coalition	Natural Capital Protocol	Enterprises	In the Protocol, an impact driver is a measurable quantity of a natural resource that is used as an input to production (e.g., volume of sand and gravel used in construction) or a measurable non-product output of business activity (e.g., a kilogram of NOx emissions released into the atmosphere by a manufacturing facility).
Taskforce on Nature-related Finance Disclosure (TNFD)	Beta Framework v0.4	All organisations	Measurable quantities of a natural resource that are used as an input to production and measurable non-product outputs of a business activity that affect nature.

The objects of impact

Definition

Object(s) of impact(s)

Whoever or whatever is affected by an organisation’s actions, specifically people and the natural environment

There are two broad categories that constitute objects of impacts:

• People: This can mean individuals or groups of individuals, such as communities. It is also possible to refer to society as a whole, as a term to designate all people. When businesses impact individuals, they also impact communities and societies.
  
  People that can reasonably be expected to be affected by an organisation’s activities or products and services are referred to as affected stakeholders.
• The natural environment: A distinction can be made here between different living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of the natural environment, such as: land; waterbodies; the atmosphere; and the living beings that inhabit and rely on them.

As the figure below shows, organisations operate in a social and environmental context; they have impacts on society and the natural environment that they are embedded in.

Commentary

• Some consider the economy as an additional object of impact, since healthy economies are a critical foundation for fulfilling social and environmental needs, objectives and aspirations. Fundamentally, however, economies are an instrument for fulfilling people’s needs and achieving their well-being, rather than a distinct object of impact.
• From an economic perspective, people and the natural environment are not only the objects of the impact; they can also be viewed as resources on which organisations and economies depend. Using this lens, people and the environment can be referred to as capitals (i.e. sources of value), where natural capital refers to nature-related resources, and social and human capital refer to people-related resources. Understanding dependencies and needs relative to these capitals is a factor considered in multiple impact management frameworks.

Partner definitions

The table below outlines the slight variations between Partners’ treatment of the objects of impact.

Organisation	Resource(s)	Objects of impact considered	Observations
B Lab	B Impact Assessment	Workers, community, environment, customers	The B Impact Assessment is categorised into five distinct impact areas [or objects of impact] that represent the company’s Governance and four key stakeholder groups: Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	Well-being Framework	People, the quality of the environment (from the perspective of people’s well-being)	The quality of the environment is considered as one dimension of people’s well-being. Natural, social, human and economic capital are considered resources for future well-being.
OECD	Measuring the non-financial performance of firms through the lens of the OECD Well-being Framework	Employees, consumers, workers in the value chain, communities, society as a whole	The conceptual framework distinguishes between the well-being of employees, consumers, workers in the value chain, and communities, and the natural, economic, social and human resources that are relevant for society as a whole.
OECD	Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNE Guidelines)	People, the Environment	The MNE Guidelines feature chapters on Human Rights, Employment and Industrial Relations and Consumer Interests, aimed at different groups of people. The Guidelines also features a chapter on Taxation, with the interest of public finances in mind.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	SDG Impact Standards Glossary (definition of “stakeholders”)	Human rights holders, customers, employees (and other workers), local communities, suppliers and distributors who are affected, the planet	Those (people and planet) who are affected, intentionally or unintentionally, directly or indirectly, by an entity’s activities and decisions (noting that inaction is also a decision).
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Impact Radar	Individuals, societies and economies, the natural environment	In the Impact Radar, the objects of impact follow the three pillars of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental.

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The subjects of impact (or impact topics)

Definition

Subject(s) of impact(s)

Specific issues that are important to the object(s) of impact

The subject(s) of impact(s) are often referred to as impact topics, dimensions, areas or themes. They represent all the things that are important to people and the natural environment.

For people, various aspects of life are important, such as health, income and livelihoods, social connections and safety, as well as any inequalities that relate to these aspects, such as income inequality.

When considering the natural environment, it is the condition of its different components (such as waterbodies, soil, air, or habitats) that matter to all the living entities that live within and depend on them. Example subjects of impact relative to the natural environment include climate change, water stress, biodiversity or soil quality. Each component of the natural environment has its own set of distinct and granular topics, although these are more often than not very closely interrelated.

The figure below illustrates how organisations can affect multiple subjects relative to an object of impact.

Commentary

• Multiple lists or classifications of impact topics exist, including some developed by the Partners. These seek to address and reflect the specific focus of different organisations with different audiences, resources and objectives. For this reason, there is significant diversity in the nomenclature of the topics. For instance, impact topics can be described neutrally (e.g. air quality, health), from the perspective of a problem or issue to address (e.g. climate change, income inequality) or from the perspective of a desired state of affairs (e.g. climate stability, clean air, decent work, income equality).

• Sustainability is an overarching objective for both people and the natural environment, covering all impact topics relevant to both objects of impact. It refers to the capacity of people and the natural environment to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability for future generations to meet their own needs.

• The concept of well-being is an umbrella construct that captures the various subjects of impact concerning people. These subjects are also reflected in the legally grounded rights-based approach, in which people’s well-being is viewed through the lens of a minimum threshold of indivisible human rights.

• The subject(s) of impact(s) are typically used to formulate objectives for improving well-being and the condition of the natural environment. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the most universal expression of a set of impact objectives.

Partner definitions

While most of the Partners’ resources focus on a range of impact topics relevant to both objects of impact (environment and people), some focus on one of the two, or on a specific subset of topics. Also, while impact topics are a common organising structure for sustainability and impact management frameworks, it is not uncommon for such resources to be structured around a combination of impact topics, as well as different sources and drivers of impact.

Organisation	Resource(s)	Terminology and definition
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	Well-being Framework	11 dimensions of current well-being and four resources for future well-being (or capitals)
United Nations	Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)	17 goals related to people, planet, prosperity and partnerships
United Nations Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Impact Radar	The Impact Areas and Topics (subjects of impact) of the Impact Radar are structured around the three pillars of sustainable development. As such, they are closely aligned with the UN SDGs. The subjects of impact are used with the purpose of capturing and managing positive and negative impacts of financial institutions, and their clients or investees on people, communities and the environment.

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2. The impact pathway

Impact pathway

Definition:

Impact pathway

The sequence that links organisations’ actions with their effects on people and the natural environment

The impact pathway describes the link between organisations’ inputs, activities and outputs with their effects on people and the natural environment, notably outcomes and impact.

Understanding the impact pathway helps organisations to identify, measure and assess the ultimate effects of their actions on people and the natural environment. It is particularly helpful in the context of impact measurement and assessment, in order for organisations to think through the causal chain from actions to outcomes and identify appropriate metrics.

A common model of the impact pathway is depicted below.

Commentary:

• The impact pathway is used and interpreted in different ways by different organisations and practitioners. For some, the sequence from outcomes to impact is a causal sequence from inputs to impacts. For others, often in the specific context of impact measurement,2 the pathway is contracted. In this case, the sequence effectively ends with outcomes, which are understood as a resulting state or condition, and impacts represent the changes in that state, as caused by the organisation.3

• The boundaries between the different elements of the pathway – particularly activities, outputs and outcomes – may vary depending on context, perspective and purpose.

For example, GHG emissions may be considered as an activity (the action of emitting greenhouse gases), an output (a by-product in production or sales), an outcome (the result of an intervention). GHG emissions may also be referred to as an impact. Although, technically, it is a driver of, or proxy for, impact (changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentration and associated climate stability).

• It should be noted that, regardless of usage, an impact pathway is a simplified model of complex, multi–factorial relationships. Inputs, activities and outputs often have multiple outcomes and impacts. These can be intended and unintended, primary and secondary outcomes and impacts.

For example, the payment of a living wage to employees in the supply chain may result in greater financial security, which in turn can result in improved housing quality, mental and physical health, safety and other aspects of the well-being of workers. These impacts can also accrue at the level of the community and/or society as a whole.

• Similarly, each outcome or impact may originate from multiple different drivers. In order to effectively mitigate or generate an impact, it is therefore necessary to understand the impact pathway and the variety of possible impact drivers in a comprehensive manner.

For example, workplace stress and associated mental health problems may be mitigated by offering employees well-being services. However, they may not be adequately addressed unless employers understand and address the full set of drivers of employee stress and mental health outcomes, including corporate culture, working hours, expectations around connectedness, and others.

Partner definitions:

Organisation	Resource(s)	Audience(s)	Definition
Capitals Coalition	Natural Capital Protocol	All organisations	An impact pathway describes how, as a result of a specific business activity, a particular impact driver results in changes in natural capital, and how these changes in natural capital affect different stakeholders.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	SDG Impact Standards Glossary	All organisations	Impact thesis or theory of change: an outcomes-based hypothesis of how an enterprise, fund, issuer, investment, or investee is expected to contribute positively to sustainable development and the SDGs. The impact thesis may be separate to, but ideally is integrated into, strategy, business models or investment thesis, as applicable. Relating to funds, typically the fund will develop its overall impact thesis with respect to the fund, and then develop an impact thesis for each of its investments or investees. However, some investees may have already developed their own impact thesis (or theory of change) that the fund reviews as part of its pre-screening and due diligence process.
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Impact Protocol for Banks	Banks	The sequence of actions, outputs and outcomes that will enable the bank to manage its (positive and negative) impacts so as to address its drivers for impact management.

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Inputs

Definition:

Inputs are the starting point of the impact pathway.

Inputs

The resources and relationships that organisations draw upon for their business activities, as well as the contextual elements that define their business activities

Examples of resources include economic, social, and natural resources. Examples of contextual elements are the policy and regulatory environment, and societal and stakeholder expectations.

Commentary:

• In a business context, resources are sometimes referred to as capitals. Indeed, the objects of impact (people and the natural environment) are in many cases inputs in the business process. Dependencies on environmental, human and social resources (or capitals) make it essential for companies to manage their impacts on these resources. Policy, regulatory and societal context are additional drivers for organisations to conduct impact management.

Partner definitions:

Source(s)	Resource(s)	Audience(s)	Definition
Capitals Coalition	Natural Capital Protocol	All organisations	Natural capital impact drivers
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	Using Outcome Indicators to Improve Policies	Policymakers	Input indicators are used to measure the amount of resources that are allocated to a policy
OECD Development Assistance Committee	Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management	Development institutions	The financial, human, and material resources used for the development intervention
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Principles for Responsible Banking	Banks	Drivers for impact management

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Activities

Definition:

Activity(/ies)

Everything that organisations do, including operations, the procurement of inputs, the sale and provision of products and/or services, as well as any supporting activities

Organisations’ activities generate their outputs and ultimately drive their outcomes and impacts. As such, activities may, intentionally or unintentionally, result in positive or negative impacts on people and the natural environment.

From an impact perspective, three overarching aspects of an organisation’s business activities (which can be referred to as core business activities) are of particular relevance: operations, the procurement of inputs, and the provision of products and services, as illustrated in figure 7.

A number of critical business activities and processes underpin these three core activities, which are also critical levers of impact management:

• Business processes, policies and systems:
  • Due diligence and risk management
  • Corporate policies and programmes
  • Human resource management

• Business development:
  • Finance and investment
  • Research and development

• Corporate citizenship, engagement and culture:
  • Corporate culture
  • Engagement of affected stakeholders
  • Advocacy, corporate citizenship and partnerships

Commentary:

An organisation’s impacts on people and the natural environment, as well as the drivers of those impacts, are strongly dependent on the types of activities (or sectors) that the organisation primarily engages in, as well as its size.

The organisation’s primary activities (or sectors) also determine the distance or proximity to its impacts:

• For organisations that produce physical goods and services themselves, a large portion of impacts may be related to the organisation’s operations, and therefore very close to the organisation. These impacts will be direct.

• For organisations assembling products using a variety of purchased goods and services, a large share of impacts may be linked to their supply chain and procurement practices (upstream). For other organisations, the bulk of impacts may be associated with the products and services themselves (downstream), depending on the type of product or service that an organisation provides. In both these cases, the distance to impact is greater, since the impacts occur either upstream or downstream from the organisations’ operations. These impacts are therefore indirect.

For example: In a coal mining company, the impacts associated with its operations will be relatively large (e.g. impact on nature and local communities; workforce health). The same is true for the impacts associated with the company’s product (e.g. the combustion of coal).

The impacts of a vegan restaurant chain are mostly associated with its operations (e.g. waste management, workforce well-being), as well as its procurement of products and services in the supply chain (e.g. the livelihoods, rights and well-being of suppliers; biodiversity impacts related to food production).

For a bank, the bulk of its impacts is linked to its financial products and services, including who uses them (e.g. consumers, organisations from different sectors, etc.) and for specific purposes (e.g. purchases, industrial developments of different kinds, etc.). Comparatively, fewer impacts are associated with its operations.

These examples are all illustrated in Figure 8.

These differences in distance to impact mean that the “levers” at the disposal of different organisations for addressing and managing impacts will vary. Organisations whose impacts are mostly associated with their operations can directly take action to alter their impacts; those with mostly indirect impacts need to implement mechanisms that enable or catalyse change, either upstream or downstream.

Partner definitions:

The Partners’ impact management resources typically encourage the implementation or adjustments of specific activities, in order to address negative and generate positive impact(s).

Partner	Resource(s)	Scope (Categories of activities)
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	RBC Due Diligence Guidance: Cease	Prevent or mitigate adverse impacts and provide for or cooperate in remediation when appropriate
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	SDG Impact Standards Glossary	Direct and indirect business operations, including sales, service, procurement, marketing and stakeholder interactions whether undertaken by an entity’s own workers or through related parties
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Principles for Responsible Banking and Impact Protocol for Banks	Four categories of actions: portfolio composition, client engagement, policies and processes, advocacy and partnerships

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Outputs

Definition:

Output

The direct result of organisations’ activities, including their products, services and any by-products

Examples of outputs are:

Products and services:

• Electric vehicles
• Chocolate bars
• Crude oil
• Financial products and services
• Medicines and vaccines

By-products:

• Industrial waste
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
• Health and safety incidents
• Work intensity
• Employees trained
• Employee wages
• Suppliers contracted
• Products / services consumed/used

Commentary:

• The distinction between output and outcome indicators may not always be very clear and is, to some extent, subjective.

For example, wages paid to employees can technically be considered an output of a remuneration policy, but can equally be considered an outcome in and of itself since wage are an important component of people’s well-being.4

Partner definitions:

Organisation	Resource	Audience	Definition
Capitals Coalition	Natural Capital Protocol	All organisations	The products, services, by-products and waste resulting from activities undertaken
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)	Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management	Development institutions	The products, capital goods and services which result from development interventions
Social Value International	Glossary of Social Value terms	All organisations	The summary of activities in numbers
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	SDG Impact Standards Glossary	All organisations	The direct result of an entity’s (i.e.the enterprise, fund, investee or issuer) activities (e.g. wages paid, hours of training provided, or products and services sold). It may also include changes resulting from the entity’s actions or decisions that are relevant to achieving outcomes.
UN Environment Programme – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)	Principles for Responsible Banking and Impact Protocol	Banks	The deliverables from the actions taken

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Outcomes

Definition:

Generally speaking, the term outcome refers to the result or effect of an action, situation or event.5 In impact management, two usages of the term outcome exist, both of which are used by various Partners and practitioners.

A first usage of the term considers outcomes as the connecting step in a sequence of causal relationships inside the impact pathway.

Outcome (usage #1)

A change or event resulting from organisations’ activities and outputs, providing a causal link between the activities/outputs and their impact(s) on people and/or the natural environment

A second usage of the term considers outcomes as the condition or state of people and the natural environment, which result from the activities and outputs of organisations, as well as from external factors. This usage therefore positions outcomes at the end of the impact pathway. In this usage, impacts are the change (or delta) in these conditions or states that are caused by the actions of the organisation

Outcome (usage #2)

The level of well-being experienced by people or condition of the natural environment that results from the actions of the organisation, as well as from external factors

Example: Under usage #1, the sale of electric vehicles (outputs following the production of the vehicles – activities) may result in a net reduction of GHG emissions thanks to increased usage of electric vehicles (outcome) as opposed to combustion engine vehicles (outcome). These outcomes may help to mitigate climate change and drive climate stability (impacts).

In usage #2, sales and usage are considered as outputs (and/or intermediary outcomes) and atmospheric CO2 concentration (the resulting condition of the natural environment) is considered as the relevant outcome. The impact is the change in this concentration as a result of the production and use of electric vehicles (as opposed to combustion engine vehicles), which is associated with the mitigation of climate change.

Figure 9: The impact pathway using a climate change mitigation example

Another example: A managerial training programme on implicit bias is rolled out to reduce experiences of discrimination in the workplace. Usage #1 identifies the outcome as manager awareness and behavioural change as a consequence of the training. In usage #2, manager awareness and behavioural change is an extension of the outputs, or an “intermediary outcome”. The outcome itself is the resulting level of experiences of discrimination within the organisation.

Figure 10: The impact pathway using a workforce equality example

Commentary

• Between these two usages, the fundamental understanding of the sequence of events does not change. However, the usage and classification of these different items in the impact pathway do differ. 

• Users of the second definition of outcome may use outputs or intermediate outcomes to classify the results that may otherwise be classified as outcomes by users of the first definition. In this case, they may refer to outcomes as final outcomes or well-defined outcomes.

Partner definitions

Organisation	Resource(s)	Audience	Definition
B Lab	Measuring Outcomes Using the Social Value Principles	All organisations	A change that is caused by an action or activity. This change can be for an individual or a group of individuals (who could constitute an organisation) but it must be as a result of an activity conducted by the business.
Capitals Coalition	Natural Capital Protocol	All organisations	The change in state or condition of the capital due to business activities
Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)	IRIS+	All organisations	Change for affected stakeholders that is plausibly associated with the products/services of the enterprise Source: Adapted from Guidelines on Outcomes Management for Financial Service Providers, SPTF
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)	Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management	Development institutions	The likely or achieved short-term and medium-term change and effects of intervention outputs
OECD	Using Outcome Indicators to Improve Policies: Methods, Design Strategies and Implementation	Policymakers	Outcome indicators are used to monitor the effectiveness of policies in achieving their objectives
OECD Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE)	OECD How’s Life?	All organisations	An aspect of well-being or the quality of the environment
Social Value International	Glossary of Social Value terms	All organisations	Change(s) people experience as a result of an activity. The changes resulting from an activity. The main types of change from the perspective of stakeholders are unintended (unexpected) and intended (expected), positive and negative change.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	UNDP Impact Standards Glossary	All organisations	An aspect of wellbeing. Aspects of wellbeing can be social, environmental, or economic.
UNEP FI	Impact Protocol	Banks	What happens as a result of the actions and their outputs