As the impact business sector has matured over the last decade, large companies have realized the need to add sustainability to their operations. And incorporating impact business into their operation – or their supply chain – would be a great way to do that.

A Yunus Social Business survey revealed the top reasons leaders interviewed encounter for investing in purpose-driven business:

1. following the company’s core values, purpose and culture (80%)
2. meet customer demand for socially responsible products and services (60%)
3. to develop new business models (55%)
4. meet environmental, social and governance and/or sustainability goals of the company (50%)
5. responding to growing public awareness and concern about sustainability and its inclusion in global supply chains (40%)

To do so, the report suggests the following step-by-step approach:

Planning 

Develop an internal process to create a solid understanding about the search for impactful companies. From there build strategy and prepare partnerships.

Identifying 

Build the pipeline of relevant social impact businesses and start the evaluation process to ensure the right match.

Initiation 

Integrate impact businesses into the company, (co)developing products, contacting and shipping first orders.

Integration 

Develop scaling strategies to further integrate the impact business into the company’s value chain.

“Our research was able to break down the myths that social impact businesses are not competitive, cannot deliver in high volumes, or cannot guarantee consistent quality,” say the authors. “As social and environmental impact procurement consolidates, demand for innovative services around market and working capital, independent measurement and impact assessment or export and certification services will become key pieces of the puzzle for the puzzle for the impact procurement ecosystem.”

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Source: Yunus NS