To all sustainability heroes - ESG Managers, Heads of Sustainability, and CEOs - how often have you wondered if your efforts, especially investments in clean air, are truly making a difference? Here's a way to put these uncertainties to rest once and for all: it's called the Impact Factor.
The Sustainability Puzzle: Archery in the dark
Imagine being an archer, tasked with hitting the target of sustainability.
Problem number 1: your target keeps moving. As any manager knows, opening a marble processing lab in Carrara, Greece, or Germany doesn't have the same impact. Similarly, purifying the air presents different challenges depending on the specific conditions of a given location.
Problem number 2: you're playing in the dark. Even if your arrows hit the target, how do you prove it? In other words, how do you demonstrate to your stakeholders that investments in clean air are related to your ESG and SDG objectives?
These are the challenges sustainability managers face every day: continually improving sustainability goals based on the specific characteristics of the territories in which they operate and being able to account for the actual results of these investments.
Enter Impact Factor: Your Sustainability GPS
What questions does Impact Factor answer?
Think of Impact Factor as a GPS for air quality. It calculates wind speed, analyzes trajectory, and adjusts your aim perfectly even if the target is moving. Moreover, it turns on the lights on the playing field, making it visible to everyone that you've hit the mark.
"How much is Pure Air Zone actually contributing to sustainability in our specific area? And how do we document it to clients, employees, and investors?" Impact Factor is the answer to all of this.
How does Impact Factor work?
Impact Factor is an algorithm, specifically a dynamic (varies with the data involved), analytical (processes data and provides information), next-generation (AI-based) algorithm.
It allows you to measure the incremental contribution of Pure Air Zone compared to the key sustainability KPIs as defined by major environmental impact standards.
Impact Factor is based on a methodology validated by IAIA (International Association of Impact Assessment) and used by UNICEF in its environmental impact assessments.
Being an algorithm, it is expressed in a series of indicators and dynamic values that change depending on a specific area. It is typically summarized in the form of a histogram included in a report.
Let's take an example: Impact Factor measures how Pure Air Zone improves and enhances the sustainability goals of the U-Earth headquarters located at Via Antonio Scarpa, 9 - Milan, with a particular reference to GRI 305 – Emissions. Impact Factor can populate a specific chapter within U-Earth's sustainability report.
Why is Impact Factor important for you?
Impact Factor is important because it radically innovates how companies can approach air purification, offering them a tool to correlate their investments with existing ESG programs.
In this perspective, becoming a Pure Air Zone isn't just about buying an air purifier; it's about investing in better environmental impact performance and being able to prove it to clients, employees, and investors. It provides a data-driven tool for purpose marketing, along with technology that protects people's health by enabling them to breathe cleaner air consistently.
All of this aligns with the materiality logic that recent environmental impact regulations are heavily introducing.
So, it's time for sustainability heroes to acquire superpowers.