From the very start, our goal has been to bring clarity and simplicity to businesses looking to be more purpose driven and sustainable. Our belief has always been that most businesspeople care about the impact their business has. They just don’t know what to do about it.

The way we have tried to create that clarity is by adopting three straight forward principles.

1) Adopt one overarching framework that captures the full ‘business for good’ philosophy to bring coherence to everything we do. That framework is called the Impact Journey*

2) Create four areas of action (from low involvement clinics and Masterclasses, to medium involvement Actions to Take Now, to higher involvement online and Impact training programmes) to provide access points to businesses at various points on their journey.

3) Support those actions with Advisors, a network and in-person events to create a supportive and inspiring Edinburgh based community

We will be running the programme in this way for the first 6 months as a pilot scheme. We won’t get everything right first time. So, your input, ideas and feedback are very welcome.

We passionately believe that business has a pivotal role to play in helping the world become a fairer and more sustainable place.

With your help we’ll make sure Edinburgh is leading the way.

One of the main aims of the Business for Good programme is to try and make sense of the many great sustainability initiatives that are available to businesses. Creating simplicity out of complexity is much easier if you have an organizing framework. And fortunately, we do. And it comes in the shape of the Impact Journey.

The Impact Journey is a comprehensive, cyclical methodology designed by Scotland CAN B , an initiative conceived in partnership between the Scottish Government and B Lab (the non-profit behind the global B Corp movement) to build a nationwide culture of business as a force for good in Scotland.

The design of the Impact Journey embraces the idea that for organisations to truly adopt the mentality of ‘purpose’ and ‘impact’ requires them to go on a journey of discovery.

The 6-module Impact Journey is designed to support any business, of any stage, sector, or scale on their journey of understanding, measuring and managing impact comprehensively across all areas and stakeholders of their business, as well as identifying their contribution towards national and global sustainable development & wellbeing frameworks (Scotland’s National Performance Framework & the global Sustainability Development Goals).

The Impact Journey is a cyclical, six module learning journey designed to support businesses in fostering impact awareness and accountability comprehensively across all areas of their business; from their core governance arrangements, through to how they interact with their employees, customers, the environment, and their local community.

The Impact Journey is circular and cyclical for a reason; it can be revisited with new or deepening levels of insight over time.

The six phases of the Impact Journey can be summarised in three vital steps towards becoming a business for good;

1) Find your motivation; whether that’s people–, planet–, or profit– led,

2) Make a plan of action, understand your business’s unique context and scope for making a positive contribution, and;

3) Track your impact; measure what matters and start laying the groundwork for accountability and improvement.

Like this Business for Good programme, the Impact Journey will evolve over time as more businesses put it into practice and we find more ways to improve it. Part of our vision for the Impact Journey training is create a community of businesses who can learn together, learn from each other and support each other in their journey to become a Business for Good.