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nef has been at the forefront of developing tools and indicators to allow business to better understand their wider impacts, and to monitor and measuring their impact on society and the environment so as to improve their ethical performance.
Through tools and indicators such as prove it!, ethical explorer, the ethical purchasing index and the social audit toolkit, nef has been one of the evolutionary ‘cradles’ of social auditing, socially responsible investment (SRI) and ethical consumerism.
nef has also piloted new ways of measuring the impact of corporate spending and investment on local economies through our plugging the leaks and local multiplier 3 tools.
Over recent years, we have:
- Begun developing a 'global impacts' tool, in conjunction with Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS), to help industry actors chart risk and improve performance against six crucial global issues.
- Been a member of the SIGMA Project Steering Group, which developed a toolkit for sustainability.
- Developed methods for social accounting and auditing and helped establish the Institute for Social and Ethical Accountability.
- Joined the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative, the global body responsible for social auditing standards.
- Helped large corporations score the quality of their social reports.
- Carried out social audits for national companies.
- Researched the relationship between social performance and financial performance.
nef’s success in implementing these tools and indicators has also exposed many of the obstacles preventing their wider adoption.
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