We founded NEW STANDARD.S with the goal of being an inclusive company that works with anyone. We believe that access to knowledge about the SDGs and sustainability should be inclusive, and thus, it’s important for us to keep an open door policy.
However, and as you might have already read in our standards, we don’t work with all clients on all projects. We only offer design and communication services to companies that are committed to sustainability as a fundamental principle.
Just like many companies these days, we too had to decide how we evaluate our projects and – most of all how – we measure our company’s impact. Given it's not always easy to make non-financial reporting measurable, we developed 10 yes/no questions that we use for internal impact assessment.
We assess our impact using three questions for each of the ESG categories. In addition, we award a special point for our team’s personal development. This means if someone on our team is keen on a project or wants to self-initiate it, they can award this extra point.
As a result, we only accept projects that score 5 or higher. If it doesn't, we can't justify the time and resources it would require for us to take that potential project on.
Here are our evaluation questions:
Does the project have a positive impact on the environment?
Does the project make sustainability tangible?
Does the project make sustainable behavior easy?
Does the project strengthen the community – locally or globally?
Does the project have a positive impact on the lives of underrepresented groups (migrants, LGBTQ+, people with special needs...)?
Does the reach of the client increase the project’s impact in a significant way?
Is the project fairly compensated?
Do we offer the most economically viable solution for our clients?
Does the budget allow us enough freedom to reinvest parts of it into our impact?
Is the project enriching for us as a team? Do we learn something new in the process?
Many of our projects are long-term; therefore, it’s difficult to measure the actual impact of a project. Sometimes such assessment is only possible after a number of years, which is why we decided to assess the potential of a project instead. Especially because, as consultants, we can only influence the success and timing of a project to a certain extent.
