How EY teams helped develop
a KPI-metrics framework to
report the Alliance to End
Plastic Waste’s impact
EY and the Alliance to End Plastic
Waste whitepaper
Chemicals & Advanced Materials
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Introduction
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW)
is a non-profit organization convening
more than 70 companies along the plastic
and plastic waste value chain, with the
mission to end plastic waste.
How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
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As a catalyst for positive change, the Alliance supports the development, de-risking and demonstration of solutions and
facilitates their subsequent replication on a large scale, addressing two issues of global importance:
Measuring the impact of such a mission is challenging.
Developing and demonstrating solutions requires the nurturing
of individual projects, while considering how to create the
enabling conditions for the future replication by others. In
addition, there is a significant time lag between initiating
projects and the generation of positive impact for the
environment and affected communities, typically in the range
of three to five years.
Meaningful measurement of the Alliance’s impact progress,
therefore, requires balancing among three types of metrics:
“indirect metrics” — measuring current activities that will
lead to an increased impact in perspective, “forward-looking”
metrics — projecting future impact and “outcome” metrics —
measuring actual impact achieved today.
To inspire further action from the public and private
sectors, the Alliance needs to create trust in the integrity
of generated and projected impacts. This requires that
impacts reported and measured are transparent and can be
independently assured against a formal standard. Specific
requirements of independent assurance can entail that balance
must be found between what can accurately be measured
and assured, versus what would be most meaningful to report
but may be difficult to substantiate.
An in-depth analysis conducted by EY teams as a supporter
of the Alliance demonstrated that no existing reporting
framework would capture the impacts that the Alliance is
generating. Existing frameworks were either too specific
or too broad. Consequently, the Alliance and EY decided to
develop a dedicated framework, including a tailored set of
impact metrics, to be independently assured and reported
as part of the Alliance’s annual Progress Report. Achieving
such is recognized to be a multiyear endeavor to establish
sufficient integrity of data required by the exacting standards
for assurance, such as ISEA 3000 (revised).
This whitepaper presents the progress and first results of this
journey, leading to a set of impact metrics that best allow for
reporting on the goals and values of the Alliance’s work. It is
intended to provide background and context to the Alliance’s
Impact Metrics Handbook,1 which defines the impact metrics
framework in detail, and the Alliance’s Progress Report,2 which
provides a first-year snapshot of the new and considerably
expanded set of metrics.
The transition to
a circular economy
for plastics
The leakage of plastic
into the environment in
regions lacking mature
waste management
systems
1 Alliance to End Plastic Waste Impact Metrics Handbook, 2022
2 https://endplasticwaste.org/en/our-stories/progress-report-2022
How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
Chemicals & Advanced Materials
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Deriving an impact
metrics framework
from the Alliance’s
mission
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How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
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Plastic brings great benefits to support modern society, generating positive societal
and economic impacts. However, the failure to reduce waste and manage plastic
waste properly results in negative impacts on the environment, human health
and wildlife.
The Alliance’s activities focus on demonstrating approaches
to address plastic waste in the environment by developing
and de-risking solutions spanning reuse, collection, sorting,
recycling, mobilizing capital and fostering cooperation
among governments, industry, financing institutions and
nongovernmental organizations.
To clarify the values, strategic focus, and priorities of the
Alliance necessary to derive the impact metrics framework,
EY teams conducted a series of interviews with the Alliance’s
Senior Leadership Team and Alliance Member Company CEOs.
This led to the identification of a long list of potential metrics,
which were then refined with the Alliance into five “core” and
two “associated” topics as pillars of the framework, as outlined
in detail within the Alliance’s Impact Metrics Handbook.
In summary, the five core topics reflect the approach of
the Alliance to deliver and catalyze long-term impact by
means of:
• developing and encouraging replication of solutions,
• leveraging expertise across the entire value chain, and
• engaging with the stakeholders that can influence and
ultimately drive large-scale deployment.
Albeit not core to the raison d’être of the Alliance a further
two topics, mitigating climate impact and creating social
benefit are recognized to be highly beneficial sustainable
outcomes of the Alliance’s work and are therefore
accounted for as “associated topics.”
Develop
solution models
Enable the
ecosystem
Mobilize
capital
Reduce
unmanaged waste
Capture value
from waste
Create social
benefit
Develop
economically
replicable solutions
for all major types
of plastic waste
in different
situational
archetypes.
Reduce
greenhouse gas
emissions through
increasingly circular
solutions.
Increase household
access to basic or
improved waste
collection and
recycling systems,
as well as create
employment or
improved working
conditions.
Align and
empower different
stakeholders to
bring about rapid
and large-scale
replication of
effective solutions,
through a collective
understanding of
the policies, systems
and infrastructure
required to meet the
scale of the problem.
Mobilize private
and public capital
to deploy into
reducing
environmental
plastic pollution
and advancing
plastic circularity.
Reduce plastic
leakage and
pollution into
the environment
through additional
collection and
proper disposal
and/or beneficial
reductions
in plastic use in
high leakage
geographies.
Increase the
economic and/
or environmental
value recovered
from plastic
waste consistent
with the waste
hierarchy
and increased
circularity,
through material
recovery and
recycling solutions.
Mitigate
climate impact
Associated topics
Core topics
Source: https://endplasticwaste.org/en/our-stories/progress-report-2022, July 2022.
How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
Chemicals & Advanced Materials
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Selecting
impactful metrics
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How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
AEPW Impact Metrics Framework
Core and Associated topics
Member-Directed Contribution
Catalyzed Capital
“Top-level metrics” Externally assured and published in annual report
“Level 2 data” Additional information collected or estimated
Metric Handbook Documentation of the metrics definitions and management framework
“Level 1 data”
Collected internally and aggregated to the top-level metric
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Before the identification of the core and associated topics, a landscape study was
conducted by EY teams, which identified around 150 relevant metrics from academia,
reporting frameworks and standards used by organizations with similar type of work.
From this list, specific metrics were selected or adapted
to provide an appropriate and balanced set of metrics
demonstrating progress against each topic. Selected metrics
were assessed against four criteria:
• Relevance to one or more of the topics
• Nature of the measure (future or outcome-oriented)
• Ease of measurement
• Ability to include in scope of assurance
While assessing the metrics identified, it was quickly found that
some of the metrics most suitable to reflect activities aligned with
the topics would prove difficult to collect data in a sufficiently
consistent and reliable way to allow for assurance. This was
particularly true for “forward-looking” metrics, which either
required predictive estimates or room for different interpretations.
As an example, the Core topic, “Reduce Unmanaged Waste”
addresses increasing the capacity of collection systems. Often
projects will develop their full potential only after several years.
Hence, measuring the actual amount of plastic waste collected
does not reflect the real impact the Alliance is creating from
its actions.
However, future impact can only be based on estimates of the
success of these projects that might not be realized in full, and
therefore does not fulfill the key requirement of transparent and
reliable measurement of impacts. In other areas, such as building
recycling capacity under the Core topic of “Capturing value
from waste” prediction of future capacity can be done with more
definitive methods and certainty.
To differentiate between metrics that can be assured under
external standards and metrics that are more indicative
in nature, a three-level structure for the Impact Metrics
framework was developed comprising:
1. “Top-level metrics” that allow measurement of impact
and are suitable for assurance, typically “outcome” and
“indirect” metrics. “Forward-looking” metrics are only
used where the metric can be projected with reasonably
high confidence.
2. “Level 1 data” comprises the granular level at which data is
collected, for example reflecting different types of collection
models or recycling technologies. Level 1 data may be
assured and then aggregated to the top-level metric.
3.“Level 2 data” comprises additional metrics that capture
other aspects of the work of the Alliance outside the top-
level metrics or reflect future projections or a higher degree
of estimation such that it is not ready for assurance.
Solution Accelerator Fund
How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
Chemicals & Advanced Materials
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Building a framework
fit for assurance
through the Alliance
Metrics Handbook
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How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
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Obtaining assurance on metrics and underlying data must be based on a thorough
framework, especially when international assurance standards, such as ISAE 3000
(Revised),3 are applied. It requires specific processes and quality control mechanisms
to be implemented besides considering applicable criteria when preparing the data.
These guiding principles of data collection have been
formalized in the Alliance Metrics Handbook. In addition to
the general introduction which is published on the Alliance
website, Annexures to the Handbook provide additional
background and a detailed explanation of each of the Level
1 and Level 2 metrics; units of measure; time horizons;
responsibility for data collection, record retention and
verification; identification of scope inclusions and
exclusions; calculation methodologies; and required
standards of integrity.
The definition of each metric is guided by five characteristics
that were established as common factors in leading
frameworks, such as the Global Reporting Initiative
Standards (GRI).
These characteristics are in the figure below:
Accuracy
Additionality
Transparency
To ensure data is correct, measured rather than
estimated to the extent possible and sufficiently
detailed within reasonable boundaries of materiality
on order to properly inform stakeholders
Comparability
To ensure data can be
compared over time and
versus other external
organizations engaged
in similar work
To ensure impact
claimed as a result of
Alliance interventions
is additional versus a
baseline or business-
as-usual scenario
To provide sufficient and
appropriate data to allow
stakeholders to make a
realistic assessment of
the effectiveness of the
Alliance in pursuing
its mission
Verifiability
To ensure data is
captured in such a way
that it can be properly
audited and thereby
ensure an appropriate
level of integrity
3 International Standard on Assurance Engagements ISAE 3000 (Revised) Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information:
ISAE 3000 Revised - for IAASB.pdf (ifac.org)
How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
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Transparency
and independent
assurance
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How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
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The Alliance is committed to achieving increasing year-on-year completeness,
accuracy, and external assurance of its impact metrics. Developing the maturity in
measuring and evidencing to allow assurance of such a broad range of metrics under
an external assurance standard such as ISAE 3000 is challenging — as plastic-related
social and environmental impacts are notoriously difficult to measure.
Many organizations seeking assurance on sustainability-related
data experience the challenge the Alliance has, namely, to
adapt internal structures and processes and create the required
capabilities and know-how across multiple stakeholders.
To ensure robustness of processes, dedicated quality controls
are required at each stage of data collection to ensure
definitions are properly understood, rigorously and
consistently applied, and that adequate evidence exists to
substantiate the data collected.
To date, the Alliance has more than 50 ongoing projects
under the Solution Accelerator Fund, and a similar
number of projects are supported by Member-Directed
How EY teams helped develop a KPI-metrics framework to report Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s impact
Commitments; these are of a very varied nature and cover
many geographies.
It is therefore understood that a multiyear process will be
required to ensure the development of appropriate tools,
training, and familiarization of all stakeholders, and to fine-tune
the data definition and frameworks for evidence required.
The Alliance has appropriately engaged not only with the
EY organization to support the development of the metrics,
but also with other consultants and an external reputable
assurance agency for a multiyear engagement, starting with
pre-assurance and progressing toward achieving limited
assurance within one to two years.
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Conclusion
EY teams and the Alliance to End Plastic
Waste developed a framework and a set
of impact metrics that allow the Alliance
to report on its goals and values.
Contacts
Martyn Tickner
Chief Advisor, Circular Solutions
Acknowledgements
Thank you to our colleagues at the Alliance to End Plastic
Waste who contributed to the development of this white paper:
Fritzie Alcover Dy
Senior Business Analyst
Steve Sikra
Vice President & Head of the Americas
Marie C Dollhofer
Director, Strategy and Transactions,
EY Sustainability
Ernst & Young GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Marie.Dollhofer@de.ey.com
Sophia Matzner
Senior Manager, Assurance,
EY Climate Change and
Sustainability Services
Ernst & Young GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Sophia.Matzner1@at.ey.com