A bespoke social impact reporting tool is working with the owner and operator of Britain’s railway infrastructure.
Impact Reporting has signed up Network Rail to record and analyse the value of the organisation鈥檚 social value efforts.
Impact is a corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting tool which streamlines the way businesses can capture and monitor processes or organisational activity that has a social or environmental benefit.
Network Rail, which sponsored the development of the sector鈥檚 Common Social Impact Framework (CSIF), is now making plans to record and report the social value generated by the organisation.
In the UK 216,000 people are employed by the rail industry and its supply chain and the UK rail system contributes 拢36 billion to the UK economy annually.
Impact MD Chris Farrell said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e becoming the go-to social impact tool for the rail sector because we collect the data which drives the values set out in the CSIF.
鈥淚mpact can capture and measure all aspects of community, social and employee engagement and demonstrates what good CSR analysis looks like in real time.
鈥淲e can help rail clients build a clearer picture of the important social value activities they鈥檙e engaged in, such as outreach in schools, rail safety, suicide prevention, apprenticeships and local economic spend.
鈥淎s a tool Impact then allows clients to set targets for further CSR initiatives such as increased volunteering hours, further time spent training and more sustainable development, all of which deliver community benefits.鈥�
Sarah Borien, sustainability strategy manager at Network Rail, said: 鈥淣etwork Rail owns and manages Great Britain鈥檚 railway infrastructure, which includes tracks, bridges and stations.
鈥淲e are publicly funded and impact millions of passengers and their surrounding communities every day, so we have a social responsibility to be community-focused and provide societal benefits for the British taxpayer.
鈥淲e want to measure our social value in a meaningful way and take into consideration a broad range of activities that we know are being delivered across the network, but rarely measured.
鈥淔or example, we will be examining employee鈥檚 volunteering time, STEM engagement, railway safety, social regeneration and community rail initiatives.鈥�
Impact鈥檚 client roster also includes Manchester Airport Group, DWF, the global law firm, Places for People and Regenda Group, national housing organisations and The British Library.