Measuring Business Success from Sustainability Certification

The United Nations Global Compact and the Rainforest Alliance brought together leading companies operating under sustainability certification systems in several markets to develop and test a methodology that companies can use internally to analyze their investments in sustainability and for external reporting purposes. The metrics address both tangible and intangible values created through certification in an attempt to capture the full financial impact of certification. Participating companies are testing a set of indicators to better understand the financial effects of coffee and forest product sustainability certification schemes, however, the indicators can be used by any company making investments in sustainable procurement or production.

In the first stage of the project, companies selected five categories where sustainability certification has the potential to financially impact their business: sales and marketing, operations, people, reputation and brand and suppliers/value chain. Each company then spent several months integrating a number of indicators into their business systems, altering or adding to these systems where appropriate. As of the writing of this document, data monitoring at the six companies has been in place for three to six months. Information exchanged between participating companies during the project and data collected thus far has helped the United Nations Global Compact and the Rainforest Alliance to refine the tools and make them as useful as possible to a broad audience. The indicator matrix and guidance on the indicators included in this report are tools that will enable companies engaged in sustainability certification to integrate an analysis of the financial value of certification schemes into their strategy development and planning processes. By taking this initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and the Rainforest Alliance seek to contribute to the development and refinement of the business case for companies acting in a responsible and sustainable manner.