Impact

Project Frame currently uses this term to refer to the way an innovation is expected to directly or indirectly result in a change in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions when compared to a defined status quo or incumbent.

In this evolving work, Frame currently characterizes 2 kinds of GHG impact: 

• Emissions Avoided: When an innovation directly or indirectly results in overall less emissions than a comparable incumbent in use today. For example, emissions are averted when a specific product, like an electric vehicle, replaces an existing product— a vehicle that relies on gas— and emits overall less emissions by comparison. 

• Emissions Removed: When an innovation removes GHGs from the atmosphere and stores it in a material that will keep it out of the atmosphere for a significant period of time. In this case, an intervention is not necessarily comparable to an incumbent. Because all things release emissions, investors must subtract the amount of emissions an innovation emits from the amount it plans to or has the potential to remove.

Impact can be positive, i.e. “good” (emissions reduction), or negative, i.e. “bad” (emissions increase), but is colloquially assumed to be positive unless otherwise specified. Other forms of impact, such as social impact or non-GHG environmental impact, are not yet included in Frame’s analysis. 

Investors try to keep their eyes on the systemic and long-term effects of interventions and reducing overall emissions in our atmosphere, rather than focusing on direct, immediate impact alone. For example, what if collective support of emissions removal innovations encouraged companies to emit more? What if an innovation sells way more units than the incumbent ever did— resulting in overall more emissions? Frame is working their way through these questions In developing principles or standards to inform decisions.

Examples of ways that impact is used: “unit impact” or “planned impact.”