Social Impact Calculator
A visual, holistic approach to cost-benefit analysis that examines the full social return of investments and policies.
Version 2.0 [October 2020]
Overview
When it comes to looking at the holistic impact of an investment on the things we care about- quality of life, equity, the environment- traditional CBAs are woefully inadequate. The Social Impact Calculator is a visual tool that shows investment and return from both the government and public perspectives in a comprehensive way that aligns values and outcomes. The purpose is both to help decision-makers make smart long-term choices and to help communicate the reasoning behind such choices to residents. [1]
[1] Cityfi (2019). "Quantifying Social Costs and Benefits to Guide Individual Action". Medium.
Why use it?
The Social Benefit Calculator:
- Makes the invisible visible - The focus on naming and broadly estimating all significant social costs and benefits keep the decision-making process rooted in reality and attentive to typically overlooked and difficult to measure factors
- Has a flexible, open-source framework that allows staff and community members to make adjustments over time to take new information into account, as well as apply the framework to different policies and investments
- Uses a long-term time horizon (30 years for infrastructure, 10 years for add-on investments) to help guide smart decisions
- Maximizes community engagement and informed discussion through a simple, visual interface
Who is it for?
Policymakers, companies
How long does it take?
While the framework serves as a template, it takes time to fill in the specific impacts and estimated values that relate to your particular project. We recommend using round numbers for estimates in order to convey the large margin of error and communicate most simply to community members. We also recommend embracing subjective forecasts or adjustments to research from people with expertise within your organization. Logic and common sense are often more accurate than using "objective" proxy data. Still, you will need to gather those experts and other key stakeholders to decide on assumptions, talk through the range of impact values (we've used 0-30 to reflect 1 full return for each year of assumed lifespan), and finalize the numbers and visual. Plan for 3-6 months.
How many people is it for?
Flexible
What materials do you need?
The Social Impact Calculator is built in Tableau and uses Google Sheets as its database. Note that Tableau licenses may be provided to non-profits at no cost.
What does the facilitator need to know or be able to do?
It takes courage to put up numbers that include subjectivity. However, it is necessary if we are to include the meaningful impacts that are difficult to measure, and expert subjectivity is often more trustworthy than statistics taken from objective research (e.g. willingness-to-pay surveys). The facilitator needs to be able to communicate that the visual is meant to be a basis for discussion and evolve over time.
Expertise in Tableau or other data visualization and software is also helpful to make the tool as user friendly in its final form as possible.
Acknowledgements
Cityfi, Miami-Dade County Department of Public Works
Links
- Cityfi. Lawson, Chelsea et al (2019). "Miami-Dade Social Return on Investment Methodology."
- Policy Application - "The Social Cost of Cheap Corn."
- Investment Application 1 - "Scenario Comparison of Bus Express Rapid Transit in Miami-Dade County."
- Investment Application 2 - "Comparison of Mobility Hub Investments in Miami-Dade County."
- Google Sheets Template
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This tool is licensed under a Creative Commons BY SA 4.0 license. For full details visit our Licensing Rules. 
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Member
Pamela Ravasio
Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Has been computer scientist. Sustainability professional for a looooong time. Worked with as well as in companies, manufacturers. Still do. Still wondering about the role we can play as consumers, too. Still hoping and believing that business can, is a force for good.
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Member
Jeremy Smith
Caunes-Minervois, Occitanie, France
I'm a writer, speaker and sustainable tourism consultant. I am co-founder of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, an initiative that supports tourism destinations, businesses and individuals in declaring a climate emergency and working together to reduce their carbon emissions in line with IPCC advice. I believe tourism can be truly life-changing, restoring us, those we meet, and the nature we need. I work to make this happen, mostly focussing on developing narratives and responses that engage effectively with climate change and resilience. I am the author of Transforming Travel - realising the potential of sustainable tourism (2018), and co-founder and editor of Travindy.com, the travel industry sustainable tourism website news site. I consult widely on sustainable tourism strategy and communication, with recent clients including Bruges Ommeland, GSTC, English National Parks, Tripadvisor, the Travel Foundation, and the European Travel Commission.
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Member
Brian Dowling
Hacienda Heights, California, United States of America
I serve as Treasurer for the California Doughnut Economics Coalition (CalDEC.org).
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Member
nigel hargreaves
Norwich, England, United Kingdom
I am a systems thinker and chartered engineer with a combination of academic and practical experience focussing on sustainable solutions. I design multi-sector architectures for circular economies that support carbon reduction, resilience and sustainability. I have worked on smart grid design for smart cities, distributed renewable energy economies and researched multi-stakeholder understandings of smart grids. I have a PhD in smart grid modelling, an MSc in climate change impacts and sustainability and a BSc in engineering as part of may academic background. I am widely travelled and have worked as an engineer in energy sustainability is Asia, Africa and Australia as well as the UK. I am keen to collaborate in using the Doughnut Economy as a framework for strategic decision making to create regenerative solutions to economies at all scales.
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Member
Allan 'Big Al' Connolly
Kingsley, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia
Hi, my name is Allan aka 'Big Al' Connolly, a trusted and multi-award winning entrepreneur, growth strategist and changemaker. I have a passion for economic and community development and a personal social responsibility to end loneliness, poverty and homelessness in WA and beyond. I am also the Founder/Managing Director of Kommuniti HQ - A profit for purpose social business specialising in community wealth building, Asset-based community development and employee-owned trusts and corporations. All tied into the UN SDG Goals, in particular Goal 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities. Our Kommuniti is growing exponentially as we seek to embed these practices into every one of the 10,000+ suburbs in Australia, in turn, creating the New Economy that is needed for people and planet to sustain temselves. If you would like to join our Kommuniti Hub Mastermind Group and secure your suburb, you can put in an expression of interest here.... http://bit.ly/KommunitiWealthBuilderEOI
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Member
Chelsea Lawson
Los Angeles, California, United States of America
My background is in public policy and data science, though I love economics. I have been thinking about the issues with GDP for a long time, and a book called Sacred Economics that I read a year or so ago had a profound impact on me. I work in government consulting, and would like to make as much of an impact as I can towards the future we want to see. I also get a bit obsessed with trash and recycling and plastic. Currently, I have an app idea to help build waste literacy and ultimately reduce our consumption and waste if anyone is interested in collaborating!
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Member
Pournima Agarkar
Pune, Maharashtra, India
I am working as an sustainability researcher on urban sustainability and climate change for a project in Pune titled making Pune a Sustainably Smart city by 2030. Here we are exploring the various tools to make the city not only smart through the use of technological innovations but also looking at the social and environmental aspects of the city along with climate change impacts.
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Member
Andrew Newton
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I am a recent graduate from the Ivey Business School MBA program in Canada with a passion for sustainable finance. I am currently working as the Executive MBA Program Assistant towards launching the world's first Chief Value Officer EMBA at Audencia Business School in Nantes, France.
