Consumer Safety Impact Goal comprises many layers that companies must consider, including the use and protection of personal information, transparency and accurate marketing, the safe use of products and services, and broad access to universal needs such as healthcare and food. Failing to address these factors may lead to misuse of personal data, product recalls from harmful practices, deceptive labeling, and predatory selling, to name a few.
When scoring a company on the Consumer Safety impact goal, the following underlying Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) factors are considered:
- Customer Privacy: Risks related to the use of personal information from customers for secondary purposes like marketing through affiliates and non-affiliates, and social issues arising from a company’s approach to the collection of data, consent, evolving regulations.
- Access & Affordability: The ability to ensure broad access to products and services, especially to under served markets. Also for under served markets, servicing universal needs such as health care, financial services, utility, education, telecommunication, and food.
- Product Quality & Safety: The ability to offer manufacturing products and services to meet expectations of customers' health characteristics. Involves liability, management of recalls, market withdrawals, product testing, chemicals, and ingredients.
- Selling Practices & Product Label: Issues from failing to manage transparency, such as accuracy, comprehensibility of marketing statements, advertising, labeling that is not deceptive or discriminatory, and predatory selling and lending practices like aggressive selling practices which mean selling products that are not in best of interest of clients and consumers.
The SASB is a non-profit organization founded in 2011 to help businesses and investors develop a common language about the financial impacts of sustainability. To learn more, see https://www.sasb.org/about/
To learn more about the Impact Scoring methodology, see How are Impact scores calculated?