Scoping What Matters: An Introduction to Impact Mapping

Abstract

For companies to take advantage of the Sustainable Development Goals, it is essential that they have a well-founded understanding of the wider impacts of their core business and corporate sustainability engagement, and of the materiality of these impacts. Impact mapping draws on theory-based evaluation methods to sketch plausible causal pathways from corporate activities to sustainability impacts. It provides an effective approach for managers and other professionals to map the impacts of their organization with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals. Findler presents impact mapping as a research-based but practical approach to materiality assessment, which is suitable for screening and prioritizing sustainability issues in a corporate context. He illustrates the approach with best practice examples of how to link corporate activities with the Sustainable Development Goals.