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PLANNING - actions, impacts and outcomes - P3
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Key Questions
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‘What are we trying to manage?’
‘How do we get there?’
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Alignment with principles
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Organisations should ensure that:
| They have a sufficient understanding of their actions, impacts and outcomes to be able to implement performance improvements that reflect an ongoing alignment with their operating principles, vision and mission. |
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When
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Before any key decisions are made within the current strategic and tactical planning process.
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Who
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Project Champions, Senior Management Team, SIGMA Implementation Team.
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Training and preparation
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Key activities
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| Training the SIGMA implementation team in impact assessment and management techniques |
| Agreeing a process/plan for identifying, categorising (e.g. social, economic and environmental or similar approach), evaluating, prioritising and communicating the organisation's actions, impacts and outcomes |
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Suggested resources
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| Performance review report |
| Legal and regulatory compliance/improvement report |
| Feedback from stakeholder engagement |
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Outcomes & outputs
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| Impact assessment and management training |
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Managing actions, impacts and outcomes
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Key activities
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| Developing significance criteria, weighting and ranking methodologies to evaluate and prioritise the management of actions, impacts and outcomes (actual and potential) |
| Identifying, evaluating and categorising actual or potential actions, impacts and outcomes that are likely to lead to significant deviations from the organisation's vision, mission and operating principles |
| Investigating, understanding and optimising the options for managing identified significant actions, impacts and outcomes. |
| Assigning roles and responsibilities to manage, reduce, reconcile, mitigate, compensate or optimise actions, impacts and outcomes and achieve performance improvement targets |
Note 1: this activity should also consider the linkages between different actions, impacts and outcomes, including any cumulative impacts and outcomes.
Note 2: the organisation should identify and consider the effect of its past, present and potential future actions, impacts and outcomes on its current and future performance - including its ability to achieve its mission and vision and align itself with the operating principles its has adopted.
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Suggested resources
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Note: the SIGMA Sustainability Accounting Guide could be used to assess the economic value to be assigned to specific actions, impacts and outcomes, as a way of prioritising investments to avoid, mitigate, compensate or optimise them.
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Outcomes & outputs
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Prioritised actions, impacts and outcomes, including significance, weighting and ranking criteria |
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Documented process for the management of actions, impacts and outcomes, including organogram, flow chart or table showing roles and responsibilities |
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Management (reduction, mitigation, compensation or optimisation) plans for significant actions, impacts and outcomes |
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Reporting and communicating
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Key activities
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| Drafting, maintaining and communicating organisational actions, impacts and outcomes report to relevant internal and external stakeholders. |
Note:the actions, impacts and outcomes report should include information on the level of direct management control or influence for each action, impact and outcome. It should also highlight different options for managing impacts and the likely effect on the outcomes.
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Suggested resources
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Outcomes & outputs
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Summary report of significant actions, impacts and outcomes |
| Communicating actions, impacts and outcomes report/plan to relevant internal and external stakeholders and mechanisms for feedback |
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Key Issues
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Useful documents:
| Existing impact assessment studies and relating planning documents |
| Existing product/service profiles and lifecycle studies |
| Utilities bills and other data - e.g. energy usage, waste arising, waste disposal and management costs, etc. |
| Site-based information, including historical data on site use, occupancy, etc. |
Real-world tips:
Though a broad consideration of the environmental, social and economic impacts may have been included in the performance review, organisations implementing the SIGMA Guidelines will probably need to go into greater depth before revisiting their strategic options.In order to do this, organisations may need to:
| Define the scope of their impacts and the level of responsibility they are prepared to take on in terms of direct management control, influence or from the perspective of a broader corporate social responsibility approach. |
| Have access to outputs from use of 'enhanced Life Cycle Assessment' (Environmental LCA that includes stakeholder feedback, social impacts, financial planning and economic forecasting) or scenario planning exercises. |
| Describe past present and future activities within the scope of their implementation programme (including the delivery of products and services). |
| Evaluate conditions (normal/abnormal/emergency) for each element. |
| Characterise and quantify (full spectrum of environmental, social and economic impacts - i.e. where they are, what they are and how they are inter-related, as well as how big or permanent they are). |
| Identify the impacts (actual and potential) and relate them to their activities, products and services. |
| Determine significance through transparent weighting, risk analysis, significance criteria, stakeholder engagement and value alignment. |
| Evaluate their current alignment to the SIGMA Guiding Principles |
This level of information could be included in the initial performance review and any subsequent final report. Alternatively, implementing organisations may wish to submit the review report to senior management at an earlier stage.
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