As the founding CEO of Social Value International, Jeremy has been a driving force in the global movement to make social impact measurement meaningful and actionable. With a career spanning finance, sustainability, and social enterprise, Jeremy has been a leading force for integrating social and environmental value into decision-making. He led the assurance framework for the UNDP Sustainable Development Group Impact Standards, championed change as an ambassador for the Capitals Coalition, and played a key role in shaping international standards for impact through ISO committees. He joined the conference all the way from Liverpool, where the Social Value movement was conceived more than three decades ago.
“If your younger self could talk to you now, what would they say to you?”
Known for his bold conversation starters gleaning fresh perspectives, Jeremy Nicholls beamed as the room full of Aotearoa’s leading change-makers, data analysts, and impact measurement specialists shifted into a reflective hum. At a time when the alarming rate of rising inequality and environmental devastation weighs heavy on our shoulders, Nicholls arrived ready to reenergise the room. Appealing to the ‘younger selves’ of those he has worked alongside for decades and at the same time to the fresh-faced young ones in the room – it was as though a baton were being held out to the next generation. And to us, in Aotearoa, where the Social Value movement is being fuelled by indigenous-led thinking, driven by hope and determination for a better future for our mokopuna.
In his address, Nicholls reflected that, for him, as a student, he enjoyed learning and thinking about development economics and the imbalance of power in the global economy. He then found himself working as an accountant, in the centre of the very system he had set out to change as a student (albeit with a humanitarian heart). Working as an accountant proved valuable, however, when, after spending four years as a stay-at-home dad, he began to reimagine accounting as a system that also accounts for social and environmental value.
In terms of impact, he remains clear on where the shift needs to come from: “Accounting is the problem here. The way we calculate profit makes costs imposed on other people become unaccounted for, with organisations chasing increased financial return – leaving a trail of harm in the backwash behind.”
Nicholls emphasises the courage required to truly understand not only the positive impacts but also what negative consequences there may be in people’s lives as a direct result of your decisions. He urges us all to be working towards a future “where organisations chasing increased financial return begin to ask: what harm are we doing? Then take responsibility – going OK, we’re accountable for that and we should do something about it.”
Nicholls has seen firsthand that it is everyday people who are leading this shift – families and young people who have a new way of understanding the impacts that our daily choices have on others and the planet, through Social Value now entering the mainstream mindset. Those who see that the future of business is in supply chain responsibility, where everyone along the way is treated with fairness.
Looking at where we are right now, he is characteristically frank and not afraid to address the elephant in the room, asking, “But are we shifting the needle?” His authenticity shone through as he shared his lived experience with the kind of real talk you only get from someone at this stage of their career who has seen it all – having carried the growth of the movement into a major global rethink on how we value people and planet as the CEO of SVI (Social Value International). He speaks about the ‘powersplaining’ he’s experienced, where those in positions of power argue why things can’t change, and the ‘let me tell you what we can do – inclusive capitalism’, where those who hold the power are tentative to let go and embrace the changes needed to truly progress for a better future for all. Even so, he remains an optimist.
“We have to be optimistic about the future – it’s hard to keep up that energy amid crises. The problems are so huge we have to have some system change. Something big’s got to happen. The solution is empowerment – but the reality is that when some people become more empowered, others who already have power don’t want to give it up.”
As someone who has dedicated more than three decades of his working career to the Social Value and impact measurement space, he speaks from personal experience about how the values that you start with begin to feel unrealistic when you’re in the slog of changemaking, which often feels like moving mountains in a system designed to benefit only a few. These are tough conversations, and his message to the next generation is clear: “Don’t compromise. And hold us to account if you think we’re compromising. You can be our younger selves looking us in the eye, going, yeah right – is that working for you?”
“You’re the future of Social Value, you’ve got the ideas, the creativity. So we can imagine a world where Social Value is embedded.”
As far as ‘where to from here’ goes, he leaves us reacquainted with our younger selves and a new conversation to lead: “What is your younger self saying is the next step?”