March 2022 White Paper

From July 2021 to February 2022 the research team at Doshisha University’s Value Research Center integrated an additional 346 impact measurements from six new ESG and sustainability reporting frameworks into its existing Value Model it had previously developed in June 2021. These new frameworks included the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)’s Prototype Climate-related Disclosures, the Stockholm Resilience Center’s Planetary Boundaries, The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Performance Standards, the UNDP’s SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises, the Science Based Target’s climate disclosures, and the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) guidance on metrics, targets, and transition plans.

Even by nearly doubling the number of impact measurements, the original 7 stakeholder, 27 theme, 80 goal model remained nearly unchanged. However, due to the increased focus on the use of palm oil, and its negative impacts on the environment and society, one additional goal “zero palm oil use” was added to the existing “biodiversity” theme within the nature stakeholder category bringing our total Goal count to 81. The following white paper outlines:

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• The foundational thinking that has guided our research to date,

• The process that we have followed to conduct our research, and

• The results of our most recent research efforts.

 

In this phase of our research, we have added more detailed assessment of the individual sustainability reporting frameworks in terms of their coverage and reliability as value measurement models.