Making social sustainability measurable, with impact on social and corporate value

Sustainability strategy

“Living together sustainably is our purpose,” says Martine Bolhuis, Senior Advisor on Social Sustainability at the diversified financial services provider Achmea. “To live up to this purpose, we want to have a clear understanding of whether our initiatives truly help people to live their lives in a pleasant and healthy way, while also generating business value – we believe these two things can go hand in hand.”

Since 2023, Achmea has been working with PwC on a strategy for social sustainability, in which these ambitions are translated into concrete targets and how Achmea wishes to contribute to them. An important next step was to make the contribution of social sustainability initiatives to society and to Achmea’s business value measurable. The approach is outlined in the white paper From impact to value creation – Making social sustainability measurable.

Measuring social impact

“Social sustainability is more difficult to define than, for example, climate objectives or biodiversity,” says Wendy van Tol, partner in sustainable business transformation services at PwC, who helps organisations with their sustainability strategy. “This is why we see in practice that companies lump together all kinds of positive social projects without a strategic connection.” Starting in 2023, Achmea has made a definite choice for social sustainability ambitions, set its priorities and decided to measure their expected value. This is truly necessary to ensure that social initiatives have maximum impact for both society and Achmea's corporate value.

IRO Pathway‑methodology

Achmea uses the IRO Pathway (Impact, Risk & Opportunity) methodology developed by PwC to shed light on both the impact on people and society (inside-out impact) and the risks and opportunities for the organisation (outside-in value), in line with the ‘theory of change’ and the principle of double materiality. As a learning case, Achmea chose the delineated issue of how to help young people become more financially resilient. What impact is financial education of MBO students expected to have on young people themselves, on society and on Achmea?

Bolhuis: “For example, we expect to see lower healthcare costs for society and Achmea if young people become more financially resilient, as a result of less stress. We also identified the levers we could pull to increase the impact, for example by increasing volunteer engagement. These insights, with strict confidence margins, underpin our strategic choices

Good relationship essential

In addition to being a developer of IRO Pathway, PwC has worked with Achmea as a co-creator to develop the impact areas, risks and opportunities. “We did this specifically for the Achmea context,” says Mila Harmelink, who, as director of Data Analytics, led the core team of her PwC colleagues and Achmea’s experts. “Identifying and linking external and internal data was a long-term project that involved extensive calculations. The good relationship that we have built over the past few years was essential in this regard. We were able to work with each other without mincing words.”

Focus on social and corporate value

The start of the IRO Pathway methodology also asked for stakeholders to be involved, Bolhuis adds: “The sustainability team’s ambitions could only be achieved tbecause people across our business recognised the value of social impact.”

“Opting for social sustainability requires courage,” adds Van Tol, “just like quantifying it, because that is not easy. Achmea usually tends to stick its neck out, so this fits well with its position.”

Finally, PwC provided training and a learning programme so Achmea can independently develop pathways for other social themes. Bolhuis: “It helps us to focus on social and corporate value based on data, so we will definitely continue with this methodology. We are the first to analyse the value of financial resilience, and in due course also of health & social well-being – the other strategic ambition of our approach to social sustainability.”