Zero Waste Network Collective Impact Measurement Project to now include Charity Op Shops

NACRO members are the original circular economy experts. We divert waste from landfill, generate funds to support the community, and create thousands of voluntary and paid positions around the country. However, we know very little about our collective impact – the contribution that we, as a sector, make to Australia’s social, environmental and economic fabric. Understanding our collective impact will create an evidence base for the unequalled social and environmental benefits of our sector, helping all NACRO members to demonstrate their unique selling points to customers, businesses and governments. It will also help NACRO to advocate on behalf of the sector, providing hard data and case studies to back up what we already know – that the charitable reuse, recycling and retail sector creates unparalleled social and environmental benefits for the Australian community.

NACRO’s proposed approach seeks to link charitable reuse and recycling with its social, environmental and economic impacts, by inviting members to regularly contribute basic information about their work and impact. This information will be used to build up an increasingly detailed picture of our sector’s collective impact around the country. Individual organisations will be able to access their own data, and ultimately, generate reports and infographics for use in stakeholder communications, annual reports, tenders and grant applications.

This project is based on prior work conducted by Zero Waste Network from 2016 to 2019 which focused on community reuse organisations, excluding charity op shops. Moving forward the project will include ongoing research collaborations with the Centre for Social Impact and Monash University. With the merger of Zero Waste Network into NACRO, we are now in a position to continue this work as a united sector, and will be measuring the impact of the whole sector, including charity op shops. Based on research and interviews with charitable peak associations and networks overseas, it is clear that collective impact measurement is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate value and catalyse sector growth, and we are looking forward to working closely with all our members to move this project forwards in the coming year.

Member consultation and project planning will begin from October 2019 – for more information, contact Matt Allen:

MATTHEW ALLEN
Program and Sustainability Manager
0432 538 827
matt.allen@nacro.org.au