The Value Research Center (VRC) launched an integrated Value Model of ESG and Sustainability measures in a new white paper issued today. With the shift from short term, profit-focused thinking towards long-term, sustainable, value-focused thinking, businesses globally need to answer a fundamental question: “What value are you providing our collective future?”
The VRC at Doshisha University was established in November 2021 to develop a Value Model that could guide any company to answer this question, so ensuring a more sustainable future. The VRC published its initial white paper, “Valuing Value”, in June 2021, integrating 357 impact measurements from 15 of the world’s top ESG and sustainability frameworks and developing a 7-stakeholder, 27-theme, 80-goal model to help businesses objectively and transparently measure and manage the value impacts that they have on their key stakeholders.
The VRC’s new white paper entitled “A Value Model for Responsible Business”, integrates an additional 346 impact measurements from 6 new frameworks into the initial model. These 6 frameworks include the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Prototype Climate-related disclosures; Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) guidance on metrics, targets and transition plans; Stockholm Resilience Center’s Planetary Boundaries; United Nations Development Program (UNDP) SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises; International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards; and Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) climate disclosures.
Professor Philip Sugai, Director of the VRC, says “Our team analyzed hundreds of existing impact measurements and organized these into 27 common themes, with 81 goals that any company, regardless of their size, industry or location can use to measure, manage and use to consistently increase the value they create for their stakeholders. Unlike existing ESG or sustainability reporting models, the VRC Value Model offers companies the ability to track their actual stakeholder impacts, using this data to create forward-looking strategies aimed at further increasing the value they create for and with these stakeholders.”
Masato Yamazaki, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and VRC operating council member, said “The Value Model that our VRC research team offers is a more advanced approach than any other sustainability model or approach in existence today, since it can automatically help identify the root causes of the problems companies face via well-developed assessment tools.”
“What is needed in sustainability efforts today goes beyond simple reporting,” says Dr. Kumar Iyer, Mentor for Value Creation and VRC operating council member. “The VRC Value Model is based on objective metrics and quantifiable indicators which can be independently verified. This is uniquely different from any other sustainability reporting approach as it is directly linked to creating social impact.”
The white paper is available for download at the VRC website:
https://www.valueresearchcenter.com/2022whitepaper
About the Value Research Center (VRC)
The Value Research Center (VRC) was officially established at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan in November 2021. The VRC aims to research and develop an open, accessible and transparent system for measuring, monitoring, assessing and reporting on value creation (destruction) impacts that organizations of any size make on the 7 stakeholder groups including (1) the organization itself, (2) shareholders or owners, (3) customers, (4) employees, (5) partners, (6) the society within which it operates, and (7) the planet.
Learn more about the VRC and its projects at https://www.valueresearchcenter.com, or email Philip Sugai at
info@valueresearchcenter.com
* Webinar, March 25 – IAFOR discusses the white paper with VRC Director Philip Sugai
Dr. Joseph Haldane, Chairman & CEO of the International Academic Forum (IAFOR) will discuss the contents of this new white paper with VRC Director Prof. Philip Sugai in a Webinar on Friday, March 25, 5:00 – 6:00 pm JST, in collaboration with the new ESG-IREC Research Center at Osaka University. This webinar will be free to attend, and reservations can be made at: https://tinyurl.com/IRC-VRC-20220325
About the IAFOR Research Center (IRC)
IRC aims to provide a research centre to nurture various international and interdisciplinary research policies that use the extensive networks of both Osaka University and IAFOR. https://iafor.org/.
About the ESG-IREC Research Center
The Osaka University Graduate School of International Public Policy – ESG Integration Research and Education Center (ESG-IREC) conducts research on practically implemented “ESG integration” models in corporate business activities for the creation of a more sustainable future. https://www.osipp.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/.
