WifOR Institute’s Value Factors

Method overview and spreadsheet

What are the societal impacts of a company’s CO₂ emissions? What is the value of research and development for the community? To enable comparison and valuation of non-financial metrics, value factors (also: Impact Valuation factors) translate sustainability figures into a uniform currency. However, organizations use different methods to evaluate their sustainability performance and most of these methods are not publicly available. With a strong commitment to comparability and transparency, WifOR has published its value factors.

Dr. Richard Scholz

Head of Impact Analysis WifOR Institute

Our mission is to set standards in measuring and valuing sustainability. Pursuing this mission thrives on constructive collaboration. We welcome everyone to download our value factors, use them, and give us feedback.

What are value factors?

Value factors convert physical units, such as tons of greenhouse gas emissions or the number of occupational accidents, into US dollars or euros. Thereby, the social significance of these impacts can be compared both within social, environmental, and economic dimensions and with financial indicators. This facilitates the inclusion of social and environmental impacts in the decision-making process, which would otherwise risk not being accounted for.

Joint Value Factors by WifOR Institute
and GIST Impact

Pushing comparability and transparency in
stakeholder dialogue

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Q&A

What should be considered when using the value factors?

Value factors allow for a meaningful comparison of the social impacts arising from corporate activities, enabling companies to better understand the significance of their activities and to manage them more effectively. At the same time, impacts are complex and multidimensional. Therefore, it is not possible to capture a company’s entire contribution to society through monetization. Transparency in the definition and measurement of indicators is crucial for the acceptance and credibility of the method. In addition, negative impacts are not to be masked by positive ones (known as “netting”).

Which complexities arise when monetizing social and environmental indicators?

When dealing with social and environmental indicators, the translation of total impacts into monetary terms becomes challenging. This is primarily due to the subjective nature of evaluating social and environmental values. Nonetheless, monetization is regarded as a crucial instrument in integrating social and environmental risks as fundamental elements of the decision-making process – marking a shift away from merely incorporating them after conducting an economic cost-benefit analysis.

Are value contributions that already exist in US dollars or euros translated 1:1 into human well-being?

The impact of corporate activities on human well-being is complex and depends on various factors. If a value is already given in US dollars or euros, it is not directly translated into human well-being. This can be illustrated by the example of wages, which are recorded in monetary units. Socially, there are different welfare implications depending on the distribution of salaries within a company. For instance, having many low earners alongside a few employees earning significantly above-average salaries produces different outcomes compared to a more balanced salary distribution. Currently, this is reflected in the “fair wage” indicator. An exception is the gross value added of companies. In this instance, monetary units such as US dollars or euros are used directly for the impact assessment in order to enable comparability with economic variables and national targets.

Acknowledgement

The value factors were developed over several years. We would like to thank everyone who provided valuable and constructive input and discourse, in particular:

Michael Verbücheln (Value Balancing Alliance)
Awaz Alfadil (Value Balancing Alliance)
Eleni Pasdeki-Clewer (Roche)
Manuel Behning (Roche)
Thomas Birnmeyer (SAP)
Vikram Nagendra (SAP)
Samuel Vionnet (Valuing Impact)

WISIT, the WifOR Institute Sustainability Impact Tool, uses these factors in conjunction with other data for the Impact Valuation of an organization’s supply chain or the portfolio of an investment fund. Learn more about WISIT here.