Impact: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)
An impact (French: impact, the same word) is a change, positive or negative, that an organisation causes or contributes to for people, society, the economy or the environment. In ISO 53001, the notion separates what an organisation does, its actions, from what it actually changes.
Updated: · edition covered: ISO/UNDP 53001:2026
In an ISO/UNDP 53001 audit
The auditor distinguishes activity, output and impact. Training employees is an activity, the growth in their skills an output, better long-term employment an impact. The auditor checks that activities are not presented as impacts and that negative impacts are acknowledged.
Assessing impact is often hard. Precision beyond reach is not expected, but an explicit method that is honest about its limits is. As in any standard built on the harmonized structure, that evaluation belongs with clause 9. See the ISO/UNDP 53001 standard.
Impact claims in public communication
Impact is the word most exposed to overstatement. When an annual report states that a programme lifted people out of poverty, the auditor asks what was measured, over what period and against which baseline. A claim resting only on activity figures, such as the number of beneficiaries, is reclassified as an output, and the gap between wording and evidence is recorded.
See also
- Contribution to the SDGs: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Contribution to the SDGs (French: *contribution aux ODD*) is the effect, positive or negative, that an organisation's activities, products and decisions have on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Risk: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Risk (French: *risque*) is the effect of uncertainty on expected results, whether unfavourable or favourable.
- Double materiality: definition (ISO/UNDP 53001)Double materiality (French: *double matérialité*) is a principle of European sustainability reporting: an issue matters either because the organisation affects people or the environment, or because it affects the organisation's financial position.