The GVFD And Its Pivotal Role In Impact Accounting

!!! About This page is descriptive rather than technical and reflects the views and opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the authoring body, the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI)

By: Daniel Rosehill [^1]

What if we could quantify impacts financially?

The Global Value Factors Database (GVFD), developed by the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI), represents a historic milestone in the journey toward more comprehensive and holistic value creation.

By quantifying environmental, social, and economic impacts in monetary terms, the GVFD provides a powerful tool for understanding the true costs and benefits of business and societal activities.

This release marks a significant turning point in how we measure value—not just in financial terms, but across multiple dimensions that affect people, communities, and ecosystems.

The Power of Quantifying Financial Impacts

In today's interconnected world, the ability to translate non-financial impacts—such as greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, or social investments—into monetary terms is crucial.

This approach enables organizations to make more informed decisions by integrating environmental and social factors into their financial models.

By using value factors, businesses can better understand the broader consequences of their actions and align their strategies with societal goals like sustainability and equity.

Investors can redirect capital flows towards businesses which can demonstrate (objectively) that they have attained higher levels of performance; ordinary consumers and savers can choose to back (or work for) those companies too.

Quantifying these impacts allows us to move beyond traditional accounting methods that focus solely on profit and loss. Instead, we can now evaluate how corporate activities contribute to or detract from societal well-being. This shift encourages businesses to take responsibility for their externalities—both positive and negative—and fosters more sustainable practices that benefit not only shareholders but all stakeholders.

A Historic Moment in Value Reckoning

The release of the GVFD is more than just a technical advancement; it is part of a broader societal reckoning with how we define and create value.

For too long, value creation has been viewed narrowly through a financial lens. However, as global challenges such as climate change, inequality, and resource depletion become more pressing, there is an urgent need to adopt a more holistic approach.

The dataset released by the IFVI offers an unprecedented opportunity to embed environmental and social considerations into core business strategies. It signals a new era where companies are expected to account for their impacts on natural resources, human capital, and social equity—factors that are often overlooked in conventional financial reporting.

One Part Of The Jigsaw Puzzle

The "value factors" have a variety of potential uses and it's important to underscore that the path towards implementation will be a process rather than a decisive single moment.

The core usage - that which has been envisioned by the IFVI - is in their use by those preparing financial accounts. These might be mandated by a regulator or (for more ambitious organisations!) prepared out of self-motivation.

But I think that the potential transformative uses for this data extend well beyond the financial realm:

• Policymakers and governments could leverage this data to estimate the costs, and opportunity costs, associated with various environmental policies
• Regulators could use the value factors as a baseline for developing independent standards for reckoning impact
• Journalists, non-governmental organisations and anyone else engaged by one of the important dynamics covered by any of the value factor methodologies could use them to simulate, or demonstrate, the extent to which companies have profound impacts upon our planet and the societies that surround them

By offering a standardized way to quantify impacts across different sectors and regions, the GVFD promotes transparency and comparability. Whether it's measuring the societal cost of carbon emissions or calculating the benefits of education programs, this tool empowers a wide range of stakeholders to make data-driven decisions that prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term gains.

Inviting Exploration: The Derivative Dataset

In this spirit of inviting deeper analysis and exploration, I have created a derivative dataset based on the GVFD. This dataset is a simple reformatting of the original source data—from the XLSM format preferred for the preparation of financial accounts into JSON and CSV for easier ingest into database systems and data analysis programs.

License Terms

Please note that all use of IFVI’s data is subject to its license terms, which have been replicated within this repository. Users are encouraged to review these terms carefully before proceeding with any analysis or application of the data.

[^1]: Daniel Rosehill is a technology and communications consultant based in Jerusalem, Israel, currently employed as the Communications Manager to Sir Ronald Cohen who is President of the IFVI.