The Social Footprint
The Social Footprint is a measurement and reporting tool that quantifies the social sustainability of an organization. In this regard, the Social Footprint is similar to the Ecological Footprint, which is a method for measuring and reporting the ecological impact of societies and organizations on the environment. Unlike the Ecological Footprint, however, which measures a population's use of and impact on natural resources (i.e., natural capital), the Social Footprint deals with impacts on what we call anthro capital (including human and social capital).
The Social Footprint differs from the Ecological Footprint in another very important way. Unlike natural or ecological capital, which is limited and which humans do not create, most forms of anthro capital are produced by people and can be grown virtually at will. When confronted with shortages of anthro capital, we can usually create more of it if we choose to do so.
Thus, the gaps that must be closed in the case of anthro capital are not sustainability gaps between fixed resources we have and fixed resources we need; they are gaps between non-fixed resources we have and non-fixed resources we could have if only we chose to produce them. The extent to which an organization contributes to either causing or closing such gaps is what the Social Footprint measures, be they positive contributions or negative ones.
What really differentiates the Social Footprint from other sustainability reporting tools is the manner in which it measures performance against standards of performance. Top-line, trend-oriented approaches are a step in the right direction, but only the Social Footprint provides a means of producing true bottom-line measures of corporate social sustainability using standards of performance as a guide. No other CSR method does this.
