About World benchmarking alliance
World Benchmarking Alliance: Measuring Business Impact for a Sustainable Future
In today's world, businesses are expected to do more than just make profits. They are also expected to contribute positively to society and the environment. However, measuring their impact on these areas has been a challenge. This is where the World Benchmarking Alliance comes in.
The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) is a global non-profit organization that aims to measure and incentivize business impact towards a sustainable future that works for everyone. The WBA believes that by benchmarking companies' performance on sustainability issues, they can encourage them to improve their practices and contribute positively to society.
The WBA was launched in September 2018 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It was founded by Aviva, Index Initiative, and the United Nations Foundation with support from other organizations such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The WBA's mission is ambitious but necessary: it aims to develop free-to-use benchmarks for 2,000 of the world's most influential companies across seven key systems transformations: food & agriculture; climate & energy; digital inclusion; gender equality; health & wellbeing; housing & infrastructure; and just transition.
By creating these benchmarks, the WBA hopes to provide investors, consumers, policymakers, civil society organizations with information about how companies are performing on sustainability issues. This will enable them to make informed decisions about which companies they want to support or invest in based on their sustainability performance.
One of the unique aspects of the WBA is its focus on stakeholder engagement throughout its benchmark development process. The organization engages with stakeholders such as NGOs, academics, industry experts through workshops and consultations during each stage of benchmark development process - from identifying indicators through data collection methods - ensuring transparency throughout.
Another unique aspect of WBA’s approach is its commitment towards open-source data. The WBA believes that data should be freely available to all, and it has made its benchmarks and data publicly available on its website. This allows anyone to access the information and use it for their own purposes.
The WBA's benchmarks are designed to be comprehensive, covering a range of sustainability issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, human rights, labor standards, biodiversity conservation, and more. The benchmarks are also designed to be ambitious but achievable - they set high standards for companies but also provide guidance on how they can improve their performance.
The WBA's work is already having an impact. In 2019, the organization launched its first benchmark on the agricultural sector which assessed 350 companies across the food value chain against a set of indicators related to environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The benchmark revealed that only 3% of companies were performing well across all indicators while over half (54%) were found to have inadequate or no reporting at all.
This benchmark has already led some companies in the sector to improve their practices. For example, Nestle announced in September 2020 that it would invest $3.6 billion over five years towards regenerative agriculture practices after being ranked first in the WBA’s Food & Agriculture Benchmark.
In conclusion, World Benchmarking Alliance is an innovative organization that is working towards creating a sustainable future by measuring business impact on key sustainability issues through free-to-use benchmarks for influential global corporations across seven key systems transformations: food & agriculture; climate & energy; digital inclusion; gender equality; health & wellbeing; housing & infrastructure; and just transition. Its unique approach towards stakeholder engagement throughout its benchmark development process ensures transparency while open-source data makes information accessible for everyone who wants it – from investors looking at ESG factors when making investment decisions or consumers wanting more information about products they buy based on company’s sustainability performance – making this organization one worth watching closely as we move forward into an increasingly sustainable future.
worldbenchmarkingalliance.org