Resource ID: INDIGO-ARES-0078
Link: https://www.sustainableorganizations.org/social-footprint-method/
The Social Footprint Method (SFM) is a context-based approach to measuring, managing and reporting the social sustainability performance of an organization. In this regard, the Social Footprint is simply a narrow application of Context-Based Sustainability, which in its broader form covers sustainability performance in all of its dimensions: social, economic and environmental.
It measures the gap between resources people need and resources organizations decide to produce.
Whereas sustainability in the case of ecological impacts is all about living within our means, sustainability in the case of our social (and economic) impacts is about creating and maintaining the means to live. What mainly differentiates the SFM from other sustainability accounting tools is the manner in which it measures and reports performance relative to organization-specific standards of performance (i.e., for impacts on anthro capitals). Such standards are set by reference to what an organization’s duties and obligations are to its stakeholders (by group) to have (or not have) impacts on anthro capitals in ways that can affect their well-being. No other sustainability method does this!
Impact goal: SDG oriented, Social impact
Internal/external: Internal
Leader: Center for sustainable organizations
Method: Attribution, Observation, Operational data, Diff in diff statistical analysis
Output format: Quant but no index, Non monetary quant index
Scale: Micro
Sourcing: Self driven
Time frame: Ongoing
Type: Framework
Used in sectors: Impact investing, Social enterprises, Sustainability eco
Who: Third sector
INDIGO data are shared for research and policy analysis purposes. INDIGO data can be used to support a range of insights, for example, to understand the social outcomes that projects aim to improve, the network of organisations across projects, trends, scales, timelines and summary information. The collaborative system by which we collect, process, and share data is designed to advance data-sharing norms, harmonise data definitions and improve data use. These data are NOT shared for auditing, investment, or legal purposes. Please independently verify any data that you might use in decision making. We provide no guarantees or assurances as to the quality of these data. Data may be inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent, and/or not current for various reasons: INDIGO is a collaborative and iterative initiative that mostly relies on projects all over the world volunteering to share their data. We have a system for processing information and try to attribute data to named sources, but we do not audit, cross-check, or verify all information provided to us. It takes time and resources to share data, which may not have been included in a project’s budget. Many of the projects are ongoing and timely updates may not be available. Different people may have different interpretations of data items and definitions. Even when data are high quality, interpretation or generalisation to different contexts may not be possible and/or requires additional information and/or expertise. Help us improve our data quality: email us at indigo@bsg.ox.ac.uk if you have data on new projects, changes or performance updates on current projects, clarifications or corrections on our data, and/or confidentiality or sensitivity notices. Please also give input via the INDIGO Data Definitions Improvement Tool and INDIGO Feedback Questionnaire.