Evaluating Corporate Impacts on the SDGs – Tools, Cases, and Future Challenges

Abstract

This paper provides a state-of-the-art review on how companies try to evaluate their impacts on the SDGs. It presents a quantitative analysis of 170 tools for corporate impact evaluation. In addition, five selected tools were tested in collaboration with three multinational corporations. The diversity of tools is enormous, and the market is relatively new and opaque. Only a few tools use complete logic frameworks, the pathways of impact are rarely uncovered, data assurance is not a common standard, third-party verification is rare, and none of the tools applies systems concepts. As a result, companies run the risk of creating a smooth façade of controllability, while underestimating the complexity of impacts and overlooking important leverage points. Bridging the gap between the business sector and the evaluation community could lift the practice of corporate impact evaluation to a higher level