The UN Sustainable Development Goals explained for business

Key takeaways from our e paper

• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a call to action to secure a sustainable and better future for all. Business has a role to play in delivering on the goals and targets of the SDGs, leveraging their resources, innovation ability, scale and reach to do so.

• Aligning business and sustainability strategy with the SDGs can have multiple opportunities for a business, including: increased resilience, profit margins, employee retention and stakeholder satisfaction.

• Effort is needed to meaningfully align business sustainability strategy with the SDGs. A materiality analysis should be conducted, objectives and metrics identified and progress against said objectives and metrics should be reported on. Numerous resources exist that provide guidance for small and large businesses on how to align with the SDGs.

• Reporting on the SDGs is important for enhancing business transparency and accountability. The Business Reporting on SDG initiative, set up by the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), outlines how to embed the SDGs into existing business and reporting processes, how to report their impact and address the information needs of stakeholders.

• Reporting on the SDGs is important for enhancing business transparency and accountability. The Business Reporting on SDG initiative, set up by the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), outlines how to embed the SDGs into existing business and reporting processes, how to report their impact and address the information needs of stakeholders.

• Investors also have an important role to play with the move towards alignment with the SDGs. By increasing positive outcomes associated with their actions, they also stand to benefit from long-term sustainable growth.

Read the full e-paper