Impact P&L: why measuring the return on impact is the new frontier of competitiveness?

For far too many years, social and environmental impact has inhabited an uncomfortable territory: a space between ethics and reputation, where companies acknowledged its importance but rarely integrated it into the real business conversation. The idea that “doing the right thing” was desirable coexisted with the tacit belief that what truly mattered happened elsewhere: revenue, costs, operational efficiency, access to capital, regulatory risk. That paradigm has become unsustainable.

The energy transition is no longer a distant horizon; it is a transformative economic driver. European regulatory pressure has raised the standard of evidence. Technological innovation has removed many of the barriers that once made the intangible seem unmeasurable. And consumers and investors, increasingly sophisticated, have introduced commercial discipline into the sustainability conversation, forcing companies to articulate, demonstrate, and capture the value they generate. In this context, impact and competitiveness can no longer be understood as separate dimensions. They are part of the same strategic equation.

At Dinamo, we have long argued that impact cannot be managed as an appendix or as a narrative. It requires an analytical architecture and a governance system that embed it at the heart of value creation. This conviction led us to develop Impact P&L©, a methodology designed to measure the economic return of impact on the profit and loss account and within the public space in which a company operates. At its core, it is about translating what we consider valuable—emissions reduction, inclusion, accessibility, social innovation, energy efficiency—into the operational language that shapes decisions: revenue, margins, cost of capital, regulatory resilience, and growth.

Impact P&L is born from a premise that functions almost as an organising principle: if it’s not rigorously measured, it cannot be managed; if it cannot be managed, it cannot scale; and if it cannot scale, it cannot transform. This is why the methodology integrates three dimensions that operate as a single system.

First, the impact-adjusted profit and loss account, which identifies and monetises the direct and indirect financial return of initiatives traditionally considered “non-financial.” Second, the direct, indirect, and induced economic value the company generates in its environment—from employment and taxation to innovation and productivity. And third, the social and environmental value translated into monetary terms to enable comparability and prioritisation in decision-making. Together, the tool provides an integrated view of the value an organisation creates and of how that value can be expanded through strategic choices.

In 2024, we applied this methodology to Cabify, a company that has spent years placing sustainability at the centre of its business model and wanted to know—with evidence and precision—the real economic return of that commitment. The question we posed was simple but ambitious: what financial, economic, and social value does Cabify generate for every euro invested in impact? And above all: how can the company use that information to compete better?

The results of the study are unequivocal. Impact structurally strengthens Cabify’s profit and loss account. In 2024, impact initiatives generated €12 million in EBITDA—equivalent to 39.9% of the company’s annual EBITDA—and represented a 166.5% improvement over a business-as-usual scenario. Total return reached €15 million, of which 80% corresponds to direct return and 20% to indirect return, translating into an especially revealing figure: each trip generates approximately €0.15 in financial return attributable to impact initiatives for Cabify.

The anatomy of that return is equally instructive. The company boosts revenue through accessibility features that attract new users and increase frequency of use, and through the differentiation offered by its ECO category to corporate clients—turning sustainability into a tangible commercial argument. It reduces cost of sales through greater energy efficiency, lower provider incident rates, and route optimisation that decreases empty kilometres. It improves its cost of capital thanks to public subsidies, the MOVES Flotas programme, and better financing conditions, including a loan from the European Investment Bank that recognises the strategic importance of electrification to its business model. Even the reputational component, reflected in social investments through the Cabify Foundation, generates value in the form of goodwill. The relevant point here is coherence: all these mechanisms—different but complementary—converge on the same conclusion. Impact does not subtract: it multiplies.

What happens when we analyse the future is equally striking. The 2025–2029 modelling estimates a net present value above €52.2 million derived from fleet electrification and efficiency improvements, along with more than €1.7 million in resilience measures linked to early regulatory compliance and climate adaptation. These data show that the energy transition does more than reduce emissions: it creates a cumulative economic advantage—a competitive edge that will grow as regulatory pressure intensifies and energy volatility deepens.

But the story does not end in the profit and loss account. Most of the value Cabify creates occurs outside its financial perimeter, in the economies and societies where it operates. In 2024, the company’s activity generated more than €1.064 billion in socioeconomic and environmental value, a figure that includes its direct impact on employment, taxation, local suppliers, and driver income; its indirect impact via investment, strategic partnerships, and technological innovation; and its social and environmental impact, from labour inclusion to road safety and reduced social cost of carbon. On average, each Cabify trip generates more than €10.7 in socioeconomic return for the broader ecosystem. At a moment when companies are evaluated not only by internal financial performance but by their contribution to the broader territory, this number is especially significant.

Cabify’s case confirms something that has been a conviction at Dinamo from the beginning: when rigorously measured, impact ceases to be a narrative and becomes a determinant of business performance. Professionally managed impact generates revenue, reduces costs, improves access to capital, and strengthens public legitimacy. But it also creates economic and social value at scale, boosts ecosystems, accelerates innovation, and helps build more resilient cities and markets.

This does not mean that all impact initiatives yield equivalent returns, nor that sustainability should be managed exclusively through the lens of ROI. Rather, it means that companies seeking true competitiveness need a rigorous way to distinguish between what generates value and what does not; to prioritise; to govern; to plan investments with the same sophistication applied to margins, CAPEX, or OPEX.

Impact P&L exists for this purpose. To place impact within the domain of strategic decision-making. To provide a shared language for CEOs, sustainability teams, finance departments, and regulators. To leave behind debates that no longer move us forward and advance toward a mature understanding of impact as a driver of competitiveness, innovation, and collective prosperity.

Cabify already operates with this logic. And its case demonstrates that doing so is not only possible—it is profitable. Every trip the company enables, every interaction, every journey, every design decision produces a financial, economic, and social return that can be measured, managed, and expanded. Approximately €10.9 in total return per global trip when combining financial ROI with socioeconomic impact.

At Dinamo, we believe this is the future of business strategy. A future in which companies that understand and monetise their impact will be more solid, more resilient, and more competitive. A future in which measuring well will be as important as executing well. And above all, a future in which impact will stop being an aspirational discourse and become a real infrastructure for value creation.