Get your certification and contribute to changing the way we

measure the impact of businesses.

Welcome!
 Agenda
What will we cover today?

1Why measure impact

• 21st century environmental and

social challenges
2
How to analyze impact

• Defining impact: the Logic

Model approach
3
How to write analyses

• Find a topic you care about

• The art of writing good analyses

• The SDGs, and the role of • The key dimensions of impact
businesses • Example analysis
• Identifying key impact topics for
• Impact measurement: the each business • 9 Golden Rules for an
landscape and its limits outstanding publication
• Practice cases & rating impact
• Impaakt: how you can be part • Editorial standards
of the change & earn money • Assignments 1 & 2
• Knowledge Centre & WOW

• Assignments recap & timeline

Impaakt
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 Table of Contents: Quick Reference
Find the content you are looking for more easily (Clickable links!)

1Why measure impact

• 21st century environmental and

social challenges (p.5-6)
2
How to analyze impact

• Defining impact: the Logic Model

approach (p.26-33)
3How to write analyses

• Find a topic you care about (p.47)

• The art of writing good analyses (p.48)

• The SDGs, and the role of • The key dimensions of impact
businesses (p.7-9) (p.34)
• Example analysis (p.49)
• Impact measurement: the • Identifying key impact topics for
• 9 Golden Rules for an outstanding
landscape and its limits (p.10-11) each business (p. 35-38)
publication (p.51-59)
• Impaakt: how you can be part of • Practice cases & rating impact
• Editorial standards (p.60-61)
the change & earn money (p.12-24) (p.39-43)
• Knowledge Centre & WOW (p.62-63)
• Assignment 1 & 2 (p.44-45)
• Assignments recap & timeline
(p.64-68)

Impaakt
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 Section 1:
Why measure impact?
 Global challenges...

“ Although the world’s 7.6 billion people represent

just 0.01% of all living creatures, humanity has
already caused the loss of 83% of all wild
mammals and half of plants [in biomass].2
“
“
“ 1.3 billion people (22%) live in multidimensional
poverty, half of them being children.1
Sources
1.
2.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/2020-MPI
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506
www.impaakt.com 3. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3
 … require global cooperation

17 global goals, further

developed in 169 targets, to
be reached by 2030

Signed by all 193 countries of

the UN General Assembly in
2015

Joined by +12,000 companies

part of UN Global Compact

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 The crucial role of businesses
And the importance of measuring their impact

Challenges Businesses Measure Transform

There are many social and A large part of these Hold companies to
environmental challenges challenges are directly account for their impact &
to solve in a limited related to the impact of leverage the power of
amount of time businesses investors to deeply
change the economy

80% of vaccines are

71% of GHG emissions
produced by the top 5
can be traced back to 100
pharmaceutical
companies2
companies1
Sources
1. https://ourworldindata.org/vaccination
2. https://www.cdp.net/en/reports/downloads/2327
Company
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 The crucial role of businesses
And the importance of measuring their impact

Traditional Businesses Impact Businesses

90%
of today’s
10%
of today’s
economy economy

ESG Data Impact Data

Company
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 What are ESG criteria?
Environmental, Social, Governance criteria

ESG criteria refer to a set of standards defining the way a company operates.

They are used by investors who wish to engage in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) while mitigating the financial
risks resulting from bad social and environmental practices.

In 2020, conventional ESG data fueled more than US$ 40 trillion of Assets Under Management (vs. 22.9 in 2016).1

Environmental: energy and material flows of the company (energy use, CO2 emissions, soil pollution, natural
resource use, waste disposal, etc.)

Social: relationships with stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, communities in which it operates)

Governance: transparency, executive pay, internal controls, shareholder rights on important issues, corruption, etc.

Source
www.impaakt.com 1. http://www.opimas.com/research/570/detail/
 Existing ESG data is NOT the solution

ESG data focus on CSR and practices, not impacts ESG data have other limitations

● Source of information heavily relies on the

companies themselves (self-declared)

● Relying on questionnaires means data used is

usually old and not reactive

● Scores are biased in favor of large companies

● “Tick-the-box” approaches still prevails in a

number of areas (in particular, social themes)

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 How can we do better?

Dimensions Complexity Revision

Look at the various

Address the complexity Allow the analysis to be
dimensions through
of impact measurement revised, deepened and
which a company can
by embracing collective broadened at all times
have an impact on the
intelligence rather than
world, not just its
single experts
practices

Sources Availability Varied Data

Open to a much Make the knowledge and Produce both a

broader range of data available to qualitative analysis and a
sources beyond the everyone, for free quantitative score
companies themselves

Company
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Mission statement

Our vision

Our passion and drive is focused on transforming how companies shape our world. Together our
community looks at their entire impact, how their operations, products, innovations and even
their ideas impact the world we live in.

Our mission?

To reinvent the way the world measures how sustainable companies are, enabling the impact
economy and making companies accountable for their impact on the planet and society.
 What is Impaakt?

We look beyond businesses’ practices to measure what really

matters - impact!

We have a unique model combining collective intelligence

(crowdsourcing) with artificial intelligence for the best results.

We make robust environmental and social impact information

available to everyone, for free so we can all make more
informed choices.

We allow everyone to be part of the change toward a more sustainable future -

everything you do on our platform makes an impact.

CONFIDENTIAL
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 How does it work?

Write
Our community of contributors write
short analyses on the impact that a
company has on a specific environmental
or social issue.

CONFIDENTIAL
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 How does it work?

Check
Each analysis submitted is assessed and
vetted by a team of Reviewers before
publication.

CONFIDENTIAL
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 How does it work?

Rate
The community rates how
positive/negative and how small/large
the impact of the company on the issue
described is.

CONFIDENTIAL
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 How does it work?

Calculate
Our algorithms then use these ratings to
calculate a consolidated impact score for
companies all over the world.

CONFIDENTIAL
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 How does it work?

Change
✓ Investors and decision-makers use
the scores to steer companies to
change their businesses.

✓ Conscious consumers use the this

information to make choices about
who they buy from or advocate for.

✓ Impact driven job-seekers look for

companies whose values are aligned
with their own.

CONFIDENTIAL
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 How can you join the movement?

Learn Rate Write

Become an expert in Each rating impacts the Finish the training and
social and final score of a become a certified
environmental impact. company. impact analyst.

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 How can you join the movement?

Readers learn about impact and

influence companies’ scores
through their ratings.

Analysts write on
important topics related
to the largest companies
worldwide.

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 Why become a Certified Impact Analyst?

Learn Demonstrate
✓ Gain critical knowledge on how ✓ Acquire valued and tangible skills in writing
businesses impact the planet & society. about, rating and measuring impact.
✓ Learn how to measure environmental and ✓ Complete our Certification to demonstrate
social impact. your proficiency in this field on your CV &
✓ Stay ahead of the curve when it comes to LinkedIn.
the sustainability landscape. ✓ Add to your career development in
sustainability.

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 Why become a Certified Impact Analyst?

Earn Make a change

✓ Once you have become a Certified Impact ✓ Make a tangible contribution by
Analyst, each published analysis is worth co-building the largest database on
€30. companies’ impact.
✓ These funds can be claimed as a cash
payment or donated to charity. ✓ Join +20,000 impact-enthusiasts aspiring
✓ Doing good can earn you money! for a more just and sustainable future.

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 Why do we run this training programme?

Build a community of members who can collectively learn

& build knowledge.

Offer a free educational tool to get more and more people

involved in sustainability and fuel the progress to a more
sustainable society.

Make it easier for future contributors of Impaakt to rate

and publish analyses.

Ensure a high level of quality and consistency across the

platform.

Company
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 Section 2:
How do you analyze
impact?
How can we define impact?

Impact … VAGUE
noun /ˈimpӕkt/ … LARGE
… INTANGIBLE
“Strong effect on someone or something”

Company
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 How can we define impact?

The Logic Model approach

Intentions Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact

Get 20’000 $200mn Improved

Example

youths to enter training fund self-esteem

Number of
the hospitality + educational Number of Financial
Teaching youths who got
job market material people trained independence
their first job
every year until + training Broader
2030 facilities economic value

Company
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 How can we define impact?

“Aceleron and Eco Charger have

launched a joint venture to provide INTENTION
circular-economy-ready batteries.”
INPUT

OUTPUT

OUTCOME

IMPACT

Company
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 How can we define impact?

“Aceleron and Eco Charger have

launched a joint venture to provide INTENTION
circular-economy-ready batteries.”
X INPUT

OUTPUT

OUTCOME

IMPACT

Company
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 How can we define impact?

“Carrefour deploys solar panels on 36 INTENTION

superstores in France.”

INPUT

OUTPUT

OUTCOME

IMPACT

Company
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 How can we define impact?

“Carrefour deploys solar panels on 36 INTENTION

superstores in France.”

INPUT

X OUTPUT

OUTCOME

IMPACT

Company
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 How can we define impact?

“23% of clients using the bank’s

microfinance services get out of poverty 3 INTENTION
years after entering the program.”
INPUT

OUTPUT

OUTCOME

IMPACT

Company
www.impaakt.com
 How can we define impact?

“23% of clients using the bank’s

INTENTION
microfinance services get out of poverty 3
years after entering the program.”
INPUT

OUTPUT

OUTCOME

X IMPACT

Company
www.impaakt.com
 Using the different dimensions of impact
Value

Scale:
- Breadth
- Depth Learn more about the IMP framework in
- Persistence this article Step 1: Understand Impact
Company
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 Identifying core impact topics for each business

Production Distribution Consumption Disposal

Design / Innovation Transport and Usage Re-usability /

Procurement / Inputs storage Consumption Recyclability
Processes Accessibility / Pricing models / patterns Unsold items
Marketing practices Mass consumption
Company
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 Identifying core impact topics for each business

Production Distribution Consumption Disposal

Design / Innovation Transport and Usage Re-usability /

Procurement / Inputs storage Consumption Recyclability
Processes Accessibility / Pricing models / patterns Unsold items
Marketing practices Mass consumption
Company
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 Focus on topics with the most importance first

Production Distribution Consumption Disposal

Design / Innovation Transport and Usage Re-usability /

Procurement / Inputs storage Consumption Recyclability
Processes Accessibility / Pricing models / patterns Unsold items
Marketing practices Mass consumption
Company
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 Identifying core impact topics for each business

https://www.sasb.org/standards-overview/download-current-standards/

Company
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 Rating Impact

To produce robust company impact scores, we

need ratings from a broad community - your
ratings count.

3-5 minutes of active reading is needed to make

an informed rating.

Impact Rating
Seasoned raters have more impact on the final
score.

Excessive/rapid rating is detected and penalized.

Quality Assessment

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 Case practice

1. Read the analysis once.

2. Look at the key metrics.

3. Verify that strong statements are

substantiated with sources.

4. Think about the broader issue and the

SDG at stake.

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 Case practice

Assess the VALUE of impact

Company
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 Case practice

Assess the SCALE of impact

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 Case practice

Assess the QUALITY of the

analysis

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 Assignment 1
Actions to get certified

Deliverable 1: Rate 15 Analyses

Learn from your peers by reading, assessing

the quality and rating the impact of
companies in at least 15 Analyses.

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 Assignment 2
Actions to get certified

Deliverable 2, 3 & 4: Write 3 Analyses

Having read plenty of impact analyses, you should

start to feel confident on what makes a good note,
so your final assignments are to write your own
analyses.

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 Section 3:
How to write
impact analyses
 Find a topic you care about

1 Go on the tab Topics and search for any keyword that relates to your topics of interest.

2 You can then reserve a topic for some time (if you miss the
deadline it will return to the pool).

Find out more about how

to use the Topic Selector
in this guide
Company
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 The structure of a good Analysis

1Introduction

• Explain the importance of the issue

at stake
2Core

• Quantitative figures about ‘what’, ‘how

much’ and ‘who’
3
Conclusion

• Do not add into the conclusion

any new facts/figures (that goes
in the core analysis)
• Give concrete data that allows the • Explain what part of the company’s
reader to understand why it is activity creates what type of impact, to
• Give the bigger picture and open
important whom
the discussion about what should
e.g. The obesity epidemic in the US is • Contextualize your information so that come next for the company
estimated to drive up healthcare costs by your reader can make an informed and
$190 bn annually. A study estimates that, accurate rating on the scale of the
by 2030, 85% of adults in the US will be impact
overweight.
• Avoid giving background information on
the company, unless it is directly related
to its impact

Company
www.impaakt.com 👉 Full article here
Cover
Example Analysis

Headline
🕘 Take a moment to read this

Introduction
analysis before we move on to how
to write your own.

SDG Company

Core
Conclusion
 9 golden rules for an outstanding publication

Company
www.impaakt.com 👉 Full article here
Rule #1: Find the right level of granularity
What’s the problem? What you must do

• Capturing and assessing the global impact that • Find a topic of interest that is relevant to the
large companies have on the planet and society company’s core business.
is highly complex.
• Make sure you cover this topic to its fullest
• These companies engage in a large number of potential, and not through a few handpicked
activities/businesses, each of them having examples.
different forms and scales of impact.
• Avoid going at a level of granularity that
becomes anecdotal.

Topic too broad: “Coca-Cola’s environmental footprint is

improving.” ✔ Right level of granularity: “Coca-Cola’s soft drinks
contribute to obesity among children.”
Topic too anecdotal: “Coca-Cola has given 200 bottles of free
soda to Santa Monica primary school for Christmas.”

👉 Full article here

 Rule #2: Impact ≠ Intentions or future goals

Intentions Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact

Get 20’000 $200mn Improved

youths to enter training fund self-esteem
Example

Number of
the hospitality + educational Number of Financial
Teaching youths who got
job market material people trained independence
their first job
every year until + training Broader
2030 facilities economic value

✔ ✔ ✔
rejected accepted

👉 Full article here

Rule #3: Differentiating ethics from impact
What’s the problem? What you must do

• Bad ethics, reputation or governance should • Find information on what the consequences
only be mentioned if they led to concrete have been of the bad/good
negative impact on the planet and society. If ethics/reputation/governance.
you cannot quantify these negative impacts,
then you cannot write on this topic. • You must describe what was the loss/benefit,
who suffered/benefited and how much
• Likewise, good ethics or good governance positive/negative impact has been caused.
does not necessarily mean good impact.
• Reporting on the ethical issue only is not good
enough and will be rejected.

Potential impacts
Ethical issues
Pollution due to environmental norms being circumvented
• Fraud (without evidence on the impact) ✔ Financial loss for local communities or competitors
• Bad governance (without evidence on the impact) Adversely affect customers or business partners
✔ Harmful products being put on the market

👉 Full article here

Rule #4: Go beyond CSR
CSR = Corporate Social Responsibility

What’s the problem? What you must do

• Corporate Sustainability Reports usually focus • Look beyond business’ practices into the most
on the company’s practices and do not always important impact issues
cover the most important impact topics that
can result from their products & services • Find sources outside of the company’s CSR
report
• They tend to also report on certain initiatives
that are marginal compared to their overall • Exercise your critical mind
impact

👉 Full article here

Rule #5: Go beyond remediation

What’s the problem? What you must do

CSR
• A=significant
Corporateamount
Social Responsibility
of information about • Always describe and quantify the broader
corporate impacts deals with remediation impact first, before mentioning the remediation
programs (e.g. reduced pollution, improved initiative launched by the company.
gender equality, etc.)
• Make sure you provide your readers with both
• Figures might be given in relative terms rather absolute and relative figures that are enough to
than absolute impact, i.e. potentially showing truly understand the scale of the impact.
huge improvements where in fact the impact
is small.

Example of what you should not do Example of how to go beyond remediation

The company generated 200 million metric tons of plastic last

The company has launched an ambitious “Zero plastic” program
in 2017, introducing new packaging materials. As a result, the
✔ year, out of which 93% was not recycled and ended-up in
company reduced its plastic pollution by 25% over the last 2 landfills. This is a 25% reduction compared with the 250 tons
years. produced in 2017, as the Company implemented several
measures to reduce its packaging.

👉 Full article here

Rule #6: Avoid allegations or assumptions

What’s the problem? What you must do

• Allegations/assumptions are not facts and can • Stick to proven facts only.
lead to writing defamatory content.
• Document assertions with reliable sources.
• If a company has been accused of wrongdoing
it does not mean that it is guilty. • Stay away from company bashing/glorifying.

• If a company is praised for its actions does not

CSRmean
= Corporate
they hadSocial Responsibility
a positive impact.

Examples of allegations Example of proven facts

• The company has been prosecuted for having polluted one

river
✔• The company has been sentenced $25million for having
polluted the river

• This company is very well-known for its innovation capacity

✔• The company has registered 569 patents last year, twice has
many as any other company in Europe

👉 Full article here

 Rule #7: Add value to your readers

What’s the problem? What you must do

• Writing a good impact analysis is more than • Connect the dots. Put the various facts and
just gathering good facts and figures. figures in perspective. Explain what they mean
in reality. Give comparisons.
• A list of interesting data points does not bring
value if they are not put in perspective, • Develop a critical mind. Discuss the pros and
challenged and nuanced. cons, reveal the limits, look at things from a
different angle.
Examples of what you must not do
• Be smart. Add value to your readers. Give them
• Share any piece of information that does not help your an insightful, informative, clever article that will
readers understanding the impact of the company get them to think.
• Repeat what they can already read in the sources. No
added value to your readers.

• Become the spokesperson of the company you are writing

about.

👉 Full article here

Rule #8: No sources, no worth
How do I know my sources are trustworthy?
Run the CRAAP test!
What’s the problem?
• Any facts and figures you give, any assertion you make CURRENCY – The timeliness of information
must be backed by reliable sources. C When was the information published or posted? Revised or
updated?
• All sources must be accessible without restriction to all RELEVANCE– The importance of the information
Reviewers and Readers.
R Does the information relate to your topic? Does it directly support
your analysis? Who is the intended audience? Is it using an
appropriate information level (too elementary / too complex, etc.)

This is the only way to ensure no claims are made on the AUTHORITY – The source of the information
platform that are not vetted and proven.
A Who is the author/sponsor/publisher? What are the author’s
credentials? What qualifies the author to write this information? Is
there contact information? Does the URL reveal authorship?
ACCURACY- reliability, truthfulness, correctness
What you must do A Has the information been been reviewed or refereed? Does it
contain data that is different from other sources? Are there
inaccuracies, spelling or grammatical errors?
• Select a maximum of 10 high-quality, publicly available PURPOSE - reason this information exists
sources.
• Ensure they come from diversified institutions in order to P What is the purpose of this information? To inform, teach, sell,
entertain or persuade? Are there political, ideological, cultural,
religious, institutional, or personal biases?
foster plurality/different opinions.
Source: CRAAP Test adapted from California State University, Chico
• Choose sources that can be read in English.
• Choose sources that are no more than 2 years old.
👉 Full article here
Rule #9: Grammar and style matter
What’s the problem? What you must do

• Typos, poor grammar and spelling mistakes • Carefully proofread your analysis before you
give your readers a bad impression about submit it. Use a spell-check tool to identify
your professionalism. potential typos and mistakes (e.g. Grammarly)

• How you write is as important as what you • Keep your sentences short, clear and concise.
write. Make sure your readers enjoy reading Make sure your readers can follow you without
your article! effort.

• If you are not fluent in English, we advise that

you write your text in your mother tongue first,
and then use a free online translation tool such
Poorly written Analyses will not be as Deepl (www.deepl.com) to get the English
corrected by our Reviewers, they will be version.
immediately rejected.

👉 Full article here

 Standards 1/2
Referencing

Source referencing standards

Sources should always be referenced and hyperlinked in the body of your analysis following the standard below:

example1 or example2;p2 or example3;p45-46

To add a reference you must:

1. Add your source URL in the
source section below the text
2. Click on the footnote button
3. Choose the source from the
dropdown menu
4. Click on Insert

👉 Full article here

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 Standards 2/2
Units and numbers
✔
Units
All units given in an Analysis must follow the metric
system and/or the international unit system.

Numbers
Use dots for decimal separator and comma for thousands
separator. Also, all numbers should be rounded to the
nearest 2 digits.
Example: 1,200.55

Currencies
All currencies should be converted to either euros (EUR)
or US dollars (USD).

👉 Full article here

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 The Knowledge Centre

Find all the best practices, tips and guides to get help you reach publication.

✓ +50 articles
✓ Constantly updated
✓ Tailored to your needs

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 Successful Analyses

A few examples of analyses that have won our ‘Weekly Outstanding Work’ (WOW) award.
WOW
You can find all our WOWs in our blog.

Company
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Keen to start?
Assignments Recap
 Assignments
What you need to do to be certified - summary

Deliverable 1: Rate 15 Analyses

Learn from your peers. Read and assess the quality and
rate the impact of companies for at least 15 Analyses.

Impact Rating

Quality Assessment

Company
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 Assignments
What you need to do to be certified - summary

Deliverable 2, 3, 4: Publish 3 Analyses

Write, submit (via the platform) and ultimately publish 3 distinct Analyses, which will be reviewed by our editorial
team

• At least one of the three Analyses published should focus on a negative impact, and another one on a positive one.

• You cannot write on topics that have already been covered by fellow analysts, unless you can demonstrate you are
bringing a fundamentally new information or angle to a topic already covered. Before selecting a topic, make sure it has not
been covered by going on the company’s page.

• All your Analyses will be reviewed by Impaakt’s Reviewers who will provide some detailed feedback. You will have the chance
to re-submit your Analysis up to 2 times if your analysis was not up to standard and published in the first submission.
In other words, you can submit one analysis 3 times, after that, if it is not publishable, it will be rejected.

Company
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 Criteria to reach the certification
What you need to do to be certified - summary

All assignments are mandatory

• Instructors will keep the right to deny the certification if they suspect that the rating or writing has not been done
seriously and accurately.

Timing of analysis submission

• To attain the certification, you can only submit 1 analysis at a time. Once your analysis has been published or
rejected, you may start writing your next one. This rule is there to help you improve your skills and knowledge of
impact measurement as you go through the assignments. There is a real learning curve to our training.

Rejection limit
• You are allowed a maximum of 3 analyses rejected. If you have more, then your certification will be put on hold; you
will not be able to submit more analyses and will have to go through our training again at a later time.
• We strongly suggest you read our guides in our Knowledge Centre to understand fully our standards before you
submit your work.

Company
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 Learning Journey
Deliverable 4 CERTIFICATION
3rd Analysis
The only constraint is that you must wait for your
submitted
analysis to be published or rejected before you can
submit your next one.

Deliverable 3 Feedback
2nd Analysis Publication
submitted
Deliverable 2
1st Analysis
submitted
Feedback
Publication
Deliverable 1
15 Analyses
Training day rated There is a learning curve to the training. Your analysis might not
get accepted at first (most of them don’t). The more you
Feedback implement the Reviewer’s feedback with rigor and use the
Publication Knowledge Centre for guidance, the quicker you will move up the
learning curve.

Exam Be sure to add contact@impaakt.com as a contact in your email to

get the slides and replay link. (Emails can end up in spam!)
Impaakt
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 What’s next?
Steps to get started on your first & second assignments

1 Register to the Impaakt

platform.
2
Select an analysis to read, then rate the
value, scale and quality.
Complete the ratings for 15 analyses.
3
Browse the Topic Selector and take the
writer’s entry exam to be able to start
writing analyses.

Company
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Thanks for joining us!