What Is Impact - And How Three Sectors Are Defining It

Once a buzzword tucked inside glossy CSR brochures and polished annual reports, impact has grown into decision-grade information. Today, regulators, investors, donors, and funding bodies treat impact data with the same seriousness as financial returns or academic citation counts. In other words, impact has matured - what was once messaging is now a mandate.

Business: From CSR Gloss to Boardroom Strategy

The private sector's relationship with impact began in earnest in 2000, when the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) launched the first sustainability reporting guidelines. This gave companies a structured way to talk about social and environmental responsibility - years before 'ESG' entered the financial mainstream. Since then, sustainability disclosures have moved from aspirational messaging to formal, regulated reporting with legal consequences.

In Europe, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is transforming how businesses communicate their impact. Starting with financial years beginning in 2024, the directive requires thousands of companies to disclose detailed sustainability information using the new European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). These standards go beyond climate to include social and governance issues and are grounded in the principle of double materiality - capturing both financial and societal risks and impacts. Canada is moving in the same direction. In December 2024, the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board (CSSB) released its first national standards, CSDS 1 and CSDS 2. Based on the IFRS framework, they apply to reporting periods beginning in 2025. The Canadian model allows for phased implementation and reflects the national context, including potential future requirements on Indigenous rights and biodiversity. Thought not yet mandatory, adoption is expected to be driven by regulators - the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).

Taken together, these frameworks signal a clear shift: companies must not deliver impact data that is audit-ready, stakeholder-relevant, and embedded in business strategy. Companies like Teck Resources are already responding, mapping issues such as tailings management and Indigenous partnerships on materiality matrix and linking them to granular, traceable meterics. The result is an integrated picture of impact - one that informs risk, drives decision-making, and redefines corporate value.

When heart and mind align: impact is not just measured - it is felt. [Photo by NIKLAS LINIGER on Unsplash]

Not-for-Profits: Merging Quantitative Results with Lived Experience

In the not-for-profit world, impact has always mattered - but the way it is measured and communicated has evolved. Increasingly, organizations must demonstrate not just intent or activity, but clear results. And they must do so in ways that balance statistical performance with human experience.

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank offers a compelling case. In its 2024 Impact Report, the organization opens with facts: 150 partner agencies, 27,474 lives served, and 4.6 million pounds of food distributed - 68% of which was fresh produce. These numbers signal scale and oeprational efficiency. But then the report shifts to a personal story from Alicia, a former donor who found herself needing food support. Her account transforms the data into a story of dignity, vulnerability, and resilience.

This approach reflects Social Value International's Principle 1: Involve Stakeholders. It emphasizes that people affected by change must help determine what success looks like. By combining metrics with real voices, not-for-profits create reporting that resonates across audiences. Funders and grant-makers see measurable results. Communities see themselves reflected in the narrative. And accountability becomes more than a checkbox - it becomes relational.

Impact in this sector is not just a way to attract support; it is a form of trust-building. When organizations ground their reporting in both numbers and narratives, they do not just document their work - they demonstrate their values.

Higher Education: Measuring Change Beyond Academia

Universitieis have long used publications and citations as stand-ins for impact. But that academic shorthand is no longer enough. Around the world, governments and funders now ask insitutions to show how their research contributes to the real world - not just to the academic record.

The United Kingdom's (UK) Research Excellence Framework (REF) led the change in 2014 by defining impact as a benefit to society, policy, health, culture, the environment, or quality of life - beyond academia. Australia followed with its Engagement and Impact Assessment in 2018. Hong Kong began including impact in its Research Assessment Exercise in 2020. And in the Netherlands, the 2021-27 Strategy Evaluation Protocol requries institutions to evaluate research through the lens of societal relevance as well as quality and viability.

A REF impact case study might follow an enzyme-based biosenor from a university lab to a neurosurgical unit. Once adopted in local hospitals, the device reduces complications, cuts costs, and improves patient outcomes - saved operations in 100 ICU cases. The story is backed by data, but brought to life by a quote from a grateful surgeon. This fusion of evidence and experience turns impact into a narrative that stakeholders beyond academia can understand.

As a result, academics are rethinking how they design and share their work. Publication remains essential, but so is value to the public. Today, research must reach farther - to influence practice, inform policy, and change lives.

A New Common Ground

Across sectors, impact has outgrown its origins as a communication tool. Whether you are in mining, distributing food, or publishing peer-reviewed science, impact now means evidence that satisfies both financial scruntiny and human and environmental relevance. It must be clear, traceable, and above all, credible.

When numbers and narratives share the same page, impact earns its place - not just in annual reports, but in real decisions that shape futures.