Sustainability Benchmarking: Free Country & Sector Data
A basis for policy decisions
Transparency for internal and external stakeholders
New Country and Sector Benchmarks Offer Guidance for Effective Policy and Business Strategies
WifOR Institute and the Value Balancing Alliance have published sustainability benchmarks that help organizations evaluate social and environmental impacts across global industries.
What the reports include:
- Country Benchmarks, based on the NACE classification, covering 18 industries across 20 national economies.
- Sector Benchmarks, based on SICS®, spanning 11 sectors worldwide.
Supporting better decision-making
The benchmarks provide a point of reference for organizations to compare their sustainability performance against industry averages. This helps them:
- Assess performance beyond financial metrics
- Manage risks and opportunities across industries and value chains
- Communicate impact credibly to investors, stakeholders, and the public
They also highlight systemic challenges – such as sector-wide supply chain issues – where collective action and policy intervention can have the greatest impact.
How the benchmarks work in practice
The benchmarks are expressed as Impact Intensities, representing the average social and environmental footprint of industries relative to their revenue. Using WifOR Institute’s Value Factors, impacts are quantified in monetary terms (EUR of impact per EUR of revenue), allowing organizations to compare performance consistently and identify areas for improvement.
Use cases:
- Understand performance relative to the industry average: Compare social and environmental performance to identify strengths and weaknesses.
- Steer and prioritize action areas: Identify where action is most needed and where interventions can have the greatest impact.
- Align policy measures effectively: Compare impacts across industries to target policy measures where they have the greatest effect.
