IRIS+ Metrics and B Impact Assessment Alignment

The Global Impact Investing Network and B Lab have worked closely together since the inception of the B Impact Assessment in order to drive harmonization between both organizations’ standards. The GIIN’s IRIS+ offers impact investors and their portfolio companies a system to measure, manage, and optimize their impact through a catalog of clearly defined impact metrics. The BIA draws from the IRIS Catalog of Metrics as well as other criteria to create a comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact across five stakeholder-focused “Impact Areas” — Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers. Questions in the BIA also reference common terms found in the IRIS+ Glossary under the “Learn” text.

In 2021, the GIIN and B Lab produced an updated alignment between IRIS+ and the BIA. This update reflects the most recent version of the BIA (Version 6) and allows companies who use either the BIA or IRIS+ to identify where there are correlations between BIA indicators and IRIS metrics, thus enabling harmonization of data between the two tools. The alignment features a two-page publication explaining how the tools complement each other, and includes a detailed mapping spreadsheet indicating the specific IRIS+ metrics that relate to each BIA question.