Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals
Background
Members of the United Nations adopted a shared blueprint for prosperity for people and the planet known as the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. This blueprint includes an urgent call to action by all countries to form a global partnership that recognizes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty and other deprivations while tackling climate change and working to preserve our natural resources. The UN put measurements in place to determine what needs to be achieved and how to track the progress toward the target completion date of 2030.1
“The SDGs are a common language and shared purpose for addressing the world’s most urgent sustainability challenges and creating a better future for all.”
This page dives into CSR alignment with the SDGs, how we’re working to build tools that help support impact reporting and measurement and includes resources along the way.
CSR Alignment with the SDGs
Over 12,000 companies based in over 160 countries in nearly every sector have committed to aligning strategies and operations that advance these societal goals.2 Responsible business goes beyond sustainable practices and creates the opportunity to support real social change essential to achieving the SDGs. The United Nations has a landing page full of resources on how company’s can support the advancement of each of the 17 goals. The section for each goal starts with the why behind providing support and then includes a framework for impact investing, a SDG compass and matrix.
Business leaders interested in helping meet the SDGs should consider embedding support for the goals as part of their organization’s culture, values and employee engagement.3 The 2019 PwC Reporting challenge showed that 72% of companies mentioned the SDGs in their annual reporting and 25% of companies included the SDGs in their published business strategy. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite examples of how companies in the Global Good Network™ support the SDGs.
*The Global Good Network is how we refer to our client base of over 400 organizations.