The research conducted by a group of scholars from the Institute of Management, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and Dipartimento di Management, Università Politecnica delle Marche found that there is a requirement to encourage thinking about the influence of capital investments on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This can be achieved by utilizing a framework that accounts for direct, indirect, and uncertain effects, as well as the 5 dimensions of impact management.
The research team worked closely with management accountants and controllers, sustainability managers, costing managers, a marketing manager and a CFO from 6 large anonymised Italian companies to develop a four-step process and tool for evaluating decisions about a company’s capital investments against the SDGs.
A case study describing the four-step process of one of the companies in detail is included in the report, enabling businesses to replicate this for other corporate investments.