Corporate Impact

It is widely accepted that sustainability has an inescapable social component, but companies find it very hard to understand and measure their social impacts. Why is this? This book, by noted CSR practitioner, consultant and educator Adrian Henriques, provides the first coherent approach to identifying, understanding, measuring and accounting for corporate social impact.

Beginning with an analysis of the nature of corporate social impact and the role of the stakeholder, the complex relationship of social impact to economic and environmental impacts is explored. This naturally leads to an examination of the contribution which social impact makes to business practice, profitability and ultimately to global sustainability.

The second part of the book assesses the theory and practise of some of the critical measures of social impact which have been developed to date. This includes Social Return on Investment (SROI), local economic impact (LM3) and social capital as well as more established techniques. . It also explores new approaches such as 'social footprinting'. This is rounded out by presentation of a social accounting framework and how this can operate in parallel to standard financial accounting procedures.

This volume provides a clear, digestible and practical roadmap for companies wishing to take responsibility for their role in society and improve their internal and external performance.

Adrian Henriques is an independent adviser, writer, researcher, teacher and campaigner on corporate responsibility, social accountability and sustainability. He is professor of Accountability and Corporate Social Responsibility at Middlesex University, and the author of Corporate Truth: The Limits to Transparency (Earthscan, 2007).