Why measuring social impact matters

Today, more than ever, people want companies to make a positive difference.

Seventy-seven percent of consumers in a recent survey* said they were motivated to purchase from companies committed to making the world better.?

But how do you measure impact?

At Philips, we set ambitious?Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets,?publish an annual dashboard?and?report quarterly on progress. In 2021, we scored 90 out of 100 for ESG performance in the S&P Global Ratings ? the highest rating it has awarded to date.

We are conscious of our responsibilities – to people and the planet – and the need to share the outcomes of our actions.?We measure the lives we improve by multiplying active products and solutions by the number of people each product or solution touches. A typical Sonicare toothbrush, for example, is used by one person on average for four years. It touches one life during that period.

For large medical equipment – like one of our ultrasound systems – we follow the same approach to generate a total lives improved figure. We determine the average number of unique patients diagnosed per system each year. We apply a statistical model to calculate and remove potential double counts for each country to address instances when a single individual benefits from more than one Philips product.

"We are conscious of our responsibilities – to people and the planet – and the need to share the outcomes of our actions."?

These statistics are generated and maintained for all Philips products and solutions on a market-to-market basis, which allows us to quantify the number of lives we touch. Our?societal impact?is expressed in the total number of lives improved on a country by country basis. This audited methodology allows us to better measure our impact, generate actionable insights and drive real social value.

In 2020, our products and solutions improved the lives of 1.53 billion people, including 127 million in underserved communities.** By 2030, we’ve committed to improving the health and well-being of 2.5 billion people per year, including 400 million people living in underserved communities.

Making a difference where healthcare is most needed

We set specific targets for improving lives in underserved communities, using World Health Organization metrics to determine where global healthcare needs are highest. With these metrics, we’ve identified 89 underserved countries and additional underserved regions that have relatively higher incidences of infectious disease, higher probability of people dying from noncommunicable disease (like heart disease or kidney disease), lower service capacity and access, and higher maternal, newborn and child mortality.

Because significant health barriers still exist within countries and regions not identified as underserved, we identify community-level access to care needs by considering social determinants of health like education, income, housing, job status, working conditions, racial segregation, transportation availability, and access to healthy food, clean air, and toxin-free environments.

Beyond the countries, regions and communities identified as underserved, our metrics also include the lives touched by?Philips Foundation, a registered?non-profit organization established in 2014 that works to improve access to quality healthcare for people in some of the most underserved communities. Through our work with Philips Foundation, as well as through our other partnerships and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects, Philips is part of the larger effort to overcome the barriers that prevent people around the world from enjoying good health.

Going beyond lives improved

Identifying health outcomes is the next big step in impact measurement. Philips is currently collaborating with the Harvard School of Public Health on a science-based methodology for measuring the impact of our products and solutions. For the future, we hope to move beyond measuring lives improved to better understand and quantify our impact on people’s health.

Philips has a long history of improving people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation, and we want to continue making a difference with our products and solutions. By driving digital connectivity and technological innovations, developing new business models and financing solutions, and building strong partnerships within an ecosystem of collaboration, we aim to expand?access to care?and help close existing health gaps.?

Measuring our impact helps us make certain we are contributing quantifiably to the global effort to ensure everyone – no matter who they are or where they live – has access to quality healthcare. As private-sector organizations make more social and environmental commitments, so grows the need to measure the outcomes of these efforts.

How can private companies make a positive impact on global health? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Related reading:

• Read?three ways the private sector can help build health system resilience?to find out how an innovative financing model could be a future game-changer.
• Or discover seven secrets to transformative partnerships, which includes the first scalable public-private partnership model for primary care in Africa.
• Visit the?Digital Care Coalition website?to learn how the private sector can accelerate the digital transformation of healthcare in low- and middle-income countries.

This article was originally published on >> Philips Perspectives.

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*Aflac Corporate Social Responsibility Survey?| **Figures exclude Domestic Appliances. | Additional references:?90 out of 100 for ESG performance in the S&P Global Ratings,?World Health Organization metrics