With Social Value Portal's Summer Release, the Planet theme of the Social Value TOM System™ gains a set of new and updated measures, each built to value environmental work closer to its true social and environmental cost. For the measures where carbon is the primary driver, that cost is now set by the Social Cost of Carbon.
Across the UK, the pressure on the environment has sharpened, and the rules are moving with it:
Waste rules are tightening. Under the Simpler Recycling policy, separate food waste collection became mandatory for English local authorities in March 2026, and the UK is targeting a 65% municipal recycling rate by 2035 from around 44.6% today.
Clean energy is scaling. Low carbon sources produced 73.3% of Great Britain's power in 2025, with renewables hitting a record 52.5%, as the country works toward the Clean Power 2030 target of 95%.
Transport is electrifying. Almost one in four new cars bought in the UK in early 2026 was electric, and road transport still accounts for roughly a quarter of UK emissions and close to a third of air pollution.
Water is under real strain. The Environment Agency projects a shortfall of 5 billion litres of water a day for England's public supply by 2055, with a further 1 billion litres a day needed by industry and emerging technologies.
Organisations are responding by diverting waste, electrifying sites, switching fleets and cutting water use, and they want that work to count as Social Value.
Social Value Portal's State of the Nation report shows that the Economy and Community Themes of the Social Value TOM System dominate the top ten most used measures across the dataset, while Planet is notably absent from that list. The appetite is clearly there: the same dataset recorded 2.4 million tonnes of carbon saved and 3.5 million tonnes of waste reduced.
What has been missing is a consistent, defensible way to value the full range of environmental work organisations are now doing, on a basis that reflects its real cost and benefit.
What is the Social Cost of Carbon?
The Social Cost of Carbon is a damage-based estimate. It values the harm one extra tonne of CO2e causes over time, from health impacts and reduced agricultural output to sea-level rise and damage to ocean and biodiversity systems, rather than what it would cost to abate that tonne.
The valuation is built on the GIVE model (Rennert et al., 2022), the same peer-reviewed methodology the US EPA adopted for its own 2023 carbon valuations, extended with additional peer-reviewed valuations for ocean and biodiversity impacts not captured in the core model.
This is a different concept from the carbon values used in UK Government policy appraisal, which are based on the cost of abating emissions to hit legally binding targets rather than the damage those emissions cause.
A tonne traded under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme cost roughly £42 in 2025, far below either figure, because a permit price reflects market supply and demand for allowances, not the underlying cost or harm.
Using a damage-based Social Cost of Carbon means a measure values the real-world harm avoided when emissions are cut, which is exactly the basis the new waste measures now use. It is also why carbon is treated as a cost to be reduced rather than a positive number added to a Social Value total.
Take waste. The old measure leaned on landfill tax, so we are replacing it with two new measures grounded in the actual social and environmental cost of waste, including avoided emissions and the Social Cost of Carbon.
Theme: Planet · Outcome: Managing waste sustainably · Unit: tonnes
This new measure values commercial and industrial waste diverted from landfill or incineration through recycling and similar routes. The proxy value for this measure reflects avoided landfill emissions, reduced embedded carbon and the associated Social Cost of Carbon, and avoided leachate treatment.
Theme: Planet · Outcome: Managing waste sustainably · Unit: tonnes
Values organic waste, such as food and green waste, diverted to anaerobic digestion or composting rather than landfill. The proxy value for this measure reflects avoided carbon emissions and the Social Cost of Carbon, alongside the energy and soil benefits of processing it properly.
Splitting waste this way means an organisation gets credit for the route it uses, and the value reflects what the diversion is worth rather than what a tax happens to be set at. It also tracks where policy is heading: with food waste collection now mandatory and landfill in long-term decline (residual waste to landfill in England fell almost 17% between 2019 and 2024), diverting organic and commercial waste is becoming the norm rather than the exception.
Carbon is not the only thing that improves when a site stops burning fossil fuel. Local air quality does too, and that benefit lands on the people living and working nearby. With the grid itself getting cleaner every year, on-site electrification now delivers a double benefit: lower emissions and cleaner local air. The new energy measure values that air quality benefit directly.
Theme: Planet · Outcome: Restoring our climate and improving air quality through energy · Unit: kWh
Values on-site fossil fuel combustion avoided through electrification, fuel switching or efficiency. The proxy reflects the local air quality benefit from reduced nitrogen oxides, fine particulates and sulphur dioxide. Carbon savings from the same activity are captured separately, so there is no double-counting.
Switching to zero emission vehicles improves local air quality through reduced tailpipe pollutants, and that is now valued in its own right rather than folded into a single transport figure. This matters because road transport remains around a quarter of UK emissions and close to a third of air pollution, even as electric vehicles approach a quarter of new car sales.
We have also added a measure for cycle-to-work schemes, which carry health, air quality and carbon benefits at once.
Theme: Planet · Outcome: Restoring our climate and improving air quality through transport · Unit: miles
Values internal combustion engine miles avoided by switching to zero emission vehicles. The proxy reflects the local air quality benefit from reduced nitrogen oxides and fine particulates. Scope is tailpipe emissions only; carbon and upstream emissions are accounted for separately.
Theme: Planet · Outcome: Restoring our climate and improving air quality through transport · Unit: number of people
Values employees supported to commute by bike through a cycle-to-work scheme. The proxy reflects the physical and mental health gains of regular cycling alongside the local air quality and carbon benefits of fewer car and public transport journeys.
Water reduction is now valued in a way that recognises two things the old measure missed: a litre saved is worth more in a water-stressed country, and water use carries a cost to nature as well as carbon. That scarcity is no longer a distant concern. The Environment Agency projects a shortfall of 5 billion litres a day for England's public water supply by 2055, so a measure that reflects where and how much water is saved is overdue.
Theme: Planet · Outcome: Stewardship of water and marine resources · Unit: cubic metres
Values water saved against a relevant benchmark. The proxy now combines the carbon cost of water supply and treatment, a country-level adjustment for water scarcity, and a biodiversity value drawn from wetland restoration costs. Default benchmarks are provided where an organisation has no project-specific one.
Alongside these, four new measures co-created with Admiral Group join the TOM System in this release: three nature measures (woodland, wetland and urban forests) and one for digital skills. We've covered the story behind those in a separate piece, and as a Social Value Portal member you'll be able to use these new measures too.
The common thread running through our new Social Value TOM System measures is accountability. Each of these changes moves a measure closer to what the work is genuinely worth: valuing the harm avoided and the benefit created. Waste now reflects real cost, with the Social Cost of Carbon built into how commercial, industrial and organic waste are valued. Water reflects scarcity. Air quality is valued separately from carbon. None of it makes reporting harder. It makes the resulting figure easier to defend.
Social Value Portal member? As a member, all of these new and updated measures are available in the TOM System and available for use now.
Not yet a member? Speak to the Social Value Portal team to discuss how membership can help you.