The Green Impact
Assessment
Methodology
The Green Impact Assessment Methodology:
Sustainary’s Green Impact Assessment acts as a roadmap to SMEs and Start-ups looking to assess, improve, and understand their product/service’s impact.
The Assessment methodology follows a straightforward yet catered structure, allowing start-ups at all stages in their development as well as SMEs to measure their product/service. The methodology results in a Green Score and identifies where a company is exceeding, falling short, and its future direction.
The methodology framework consists of 4 Key Impact Areas, Awareness Criteria and Risk Criteria. Information and data are drawn from GHG Protocol, ISO and GRI standards, and the SDGs to assess a company’s business model, product life cycle, and ESG impact. Our partners at DTU and Reykjavik University have contributed throughout the creation of the methodology.
What we measure
The Green Impact Assessment™ looks at impactful solutions to assess their level of impact through an integrated framework combining four key aspects of sustainability:
Market Adaptation
Evaluation of your product business model, competitive advantage, diversity, environment/social goals, innovation capacity, accessibility, and vertical adaptability.
Environmental Impact
Evaluation of your impact regarding water and land pollution, energy usage, CO2 emissions, biodiversity, circularity and waste.
Life cycle analysis
Evaluation of the life cycle framework, including raw materials, manufacturing/processing, transportation, usage/retail, and waste disposal.
Social Impact
Evaluation of your impact regarding to what extent it creates value for the wider community and stakeholders.
Awareness Criteria
The awareness criteria recognise your company’s actions and methods to measure its product life cycle and ESG impact. Incorporating an awareness Criterion into each impact area provides a guideline for identifying new opportunities, processes, and targets your company can pursue in the future.
Risk Criteria
Sustainary acknowledges that every company incorporates a certain level of risk when running its business. The risk criteria questions evaluate the level of risk a company is exposed to throughout the impact areas.
Green Certification
The Assessment calculates a score (provided in the report) which is used to generate the respective certification.
How well your solution scores on 4 key aspects of sustainability: Market Adaptation, Product/Service Life Cycle, Environmental Impact, and Social Impact.
REGENERATOR
You have tapped into the ultimate future of our business systems by fully unlocking the potentials of a circular economy. You are providing benefits for the rest of the impact community through your actions of regenerative thinking by regenerating products, services, and income in the process.
You scored highly (>90%) on each aspect of the assessment and have conducted your own product life cycle assessment.
TRENDSETTER
You are a beacon, setting the green standards for others to follow your lead. You fuel others’ positive impacts with your own agenda, are the connector for your network community with your actions, and guide others along their green impact journey.
You scored highly (75-89%) on each aspect of the assessment but have not conducted your own product life cycle assessment.
TORCH-HOLDER
You are leading the marathon that is your business’ journey, achieving a high degree of green impact and championing your impact for others to follow. You have a great awareness of your impact, but have not yet begun identifying vertical adaptability or target setting.
Achieved by scoring between 60-74%.
ADAPTOR
You are a seedling at the beginning of your green growth journey, with a huge potential to become a prosperous and commensal tree. You are constantly adapting to new green agendas, solutions, trends, and targets as they become known to you. Your green solution presents great potential but has not integrated its intended market.
Achieved by scoring between 40-59%.
If your solution fails to score above 40%, Sustainary will provide guidance and advice on how to improve your solution’s score.
In order to maintain Sustainary’s Green Impact Assessment certification, a company must update their assessment annually by providing updated documentation to ensure that companies continue to uphold their solution’s life cycle and ESG impact as the business grows and develops. This also allows companies to set improved targets against the most up-to-date standards and benchmark their performance.
Note: The assessment is valid for 1 year.
