Understanding Impact Business Models: Impact Improvement

What is the intent of the Impact Business Model?   

What are some examples of companies that have this impact?    

My company may be eligible for this IBM. How do I open this IBM in the B Impact Assessment?    

How do I assess my company’s eligibility for this Impact Business Model?    

My company may be eligible for this IBM. What supporting information do we need to provide?

Concepts in the B Impact Assessment

What is the intent of the Impact Business Model? 

A company can have a positive social or environmental impact by enabling its client businesses or organizations to improve their social or environmental impact. This is frequently done by selling tools, resources, research, advice, and implementation services designed to improve the impact of their clients by helping them address specific social or environmental issues. Such impact-improving services can include Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) consulting, assisting companies to serve a particular underserved population, providing expertise on a specific social challenge affecting society, sustainability reporting services, among others. 

The Impact Improvement Impact Business Model in the Customers Impact Area in the B Impact Assessment can be applied to certain business-to-business products and services that generate positive social or environmental impact for paying clients. This IBM applies most frequently when a company offers impact consulting services, like consulting to help a client transition into a social enterprise, amongst other practices.

How do I assess my company’s eligibility for this Impact Business Model? 

To assess whether your company’s products and/or services can be captured in this Impact Business Model, consider outlining a breakdown of services offered to clients in the reporting period and describe them in-depth, focusing on the intended or realized impacts of the services on the client’s operations or business model. The Impact Improvement IBM is appropriate for companies that provide consulting services related to the clients' social or environmental performance.

Services related to supporting clients in complying with legislation and regulatory requirements are not captured in this IBM as we only capture practices that go above and beyond what is required by the law. 

It is key to consider these questions to consider about the company’s impact:

• What are the solutions your company has provided to clients?

• What changes resulted from the products and/or services offered to the client?

• What methodology does your company use to understand the client’s challenge and develop solutions?

• What types of challenges are your clients seeking to solve by engaging with your company?

• Do these services go above and beyond what the client must comply with according to the law (i.e., government regulations)? If your company’s services support clients in meeting a legal compliance requirement, then those services cannot be captured in this IBM. 

Could the same impact be captured in more than one Impact Business Model? 

Companies are not able to capture their impact in the Impact Improvement IBM if there is another IBM that better captures the impactful outcome produced, or in other words, the primary and direct impact of the product more closely matches another IBM. Try to find the IBM that closely reflects the primary impact delivered (e.g., Renewable Energy IBM for solar panels, Resource Conservation for consulting that results in decreased energy or water usage). See further guidance below:

• Support for Purpose-Driven Enterprises (SPDE) IBM is an option when the product/service is not particularly socially or environmentally impactful, but a customized business service is provided to a purpose-driven client, which in turn allows the client to be more economically successful. The key here is to consider the ‘what’ first - what a company provides to clients, and then consider the ‘who’ as a secondary consideration.

Marketing services that focus on improving a company’s image or public perception, as it relates to social or environmental performance (without resulting in actual changes to the company’s social or environmental practices), are to be considered in SPDE IBM, and not Impact Improvement (if the clients are purpose-driven organizations).

When a company is offering a service that is primarily and directly focused on improving the social or environmental impact of a purpose-driven client (e.g., sustainability reporting, stakeholder engagement, etc.), as opposed to traditional mainstream clients, credit should be given to Impact Improvement and not SPDE IBM, as we focus on the primary and direct impact the company is generating. 

• When a company offers a consulting service strictly related to the environment, like environmental monitoring or improvements for their clients (e.g., consultancy on optimized transportation, consultancy on sustainable farming, etc.), it is recommended to capture it in Environmental Education and Information IBM and not Impact Improvement IBM. 

• When a company is offering a consulting service that is strictly related to reducing inputs and outputs for its clients (e.g., water, energy, emissions, waste reduction), it is recommended to capture it in Resource Conservation IBM and not Impact Improvement IBM.

What are some examples of companies that have this impact?

• Social impact consulting company leveraging systems thinking and cross-sector collaborations to empower organizations to move towards a greater, measurable, and systemic social impact.

• A company focused on supporting aspiring and existing B Corps with the B Corp certification process.

• A software company that provides an employee satisfaction and engagement platform, which contributes to improving worker experiences and engagement. 

My company may be eligible for this IBM. How do I open this IBM in the B Impact Assessment? 

If you are considering opting into this IBM, you will have to answer specific questions about the impact of your product/service that will determine which Impact Business Models you see in your BIA. These questions, called gating questions, ensure that you see the content that is most relevant to your company in your assessment. 

To find the gating questions for the Impact Improvement IBM, navigate to the Customers Impact Area and search for the questions titled “Customer Impact Business Model Introduction” and “Customer Focus of Product or Service.”  Respond “Yes” to these questions. 

This will open the “Beneficial Product Type” and “Direct Focus on Improvement Impact of Organizations” questions, to which you may respond in the following way to open this IBM :

To ensure that the Impact Improvement Impact Business Model shows up, answer the gating questions as shown in the images above. Any deviation from this will prevent the IBM from becoming visible in your BIA. 

My company may be eligible for this IBM. What supporting information do we need to provide? 

To demonstrate that your company’s product/service could be captured in this IBM you may be asked to provide documentation such as: 

• Research or data collection that is used to improve a company’s social or environmental performance

• Evidence of generalized sustainability strategy consulting or social sustainability consulting services provided to for-profit companies (not services strictly focused on the environment or reducing environmental outputs)

• Evidence of the creation of impact reports that demonstrate a company’s non-financial impact on society through transparent reporting, which can result in real improvements over time through measuring impact and setting goals

• Documents that demonstrate significant changes to a company’s mission, business model, or core strategy or practices that embed social and environmental targets into the business

• Documents can include service contracts detailing the scope of work 

• Public-facing case studies of client challenges solved

• Internal-facing final reports delivered to the client 

• Other documents or presentations that detail client engagement, problem identification, proposed solutions, implemented solutions, final outcomes of the work delivered.

Concepts in the B Impact Assessment

Beneficiary - An individual for which your company intends to provide a positive impact through its products/services. For some companies, "beneficiaries" and "customers/clients" mean the same thing, while for other companies they will be distinct. For example, a company that sells professional development courses to individuals would consider both its customers and beneficiaries to be the individuals it serves. However, a company that sells solar-powered lanterns to NGOs in emerging markets, which in turn distributes them to underserved individuals, would consider its clients to be the NGOs and its beneficiaries to be the end-users of its product.
Near-term outcomes - This refers to the immediate or near-future results or consequences of a particular event, decision, or action. These outcomes typically occur within a relatively short period, ranging from a few days to a few months. Near-term outcomes are often tangible and measurable, and they can influence subsequent actions or decisions. Unlike outputs, which focus on what is produced/delivered, near-term outcomes focus on the impact or changes that occur as a result of the outputs. They are the effects or consequences of utilizing or implementing the outputs.
Long-term outcomes - The results or consequences that occur over an extended period, usually spanning months, years, or even decades. Long-term outcomes often have a broader impact and may be less immediately visible or measurable than near-term outcomes. For instance, long-term outcomes in the context of environmental conservation could include the restoration of an ecosystem, the reduction of carbon emissions over several decades, or the preservation of endangered species.