SDGs Compass for Sustainable Climate Business
Today is the age of disruption. Not only technology disrupted, social model, economic problem or even the way to think changed. Beyond the political and business interest, every role actor should rebuild the strategy to face off the future. The way to achieve SDGs is a quite rough street. We must redesign the perspective through the issue.
The SDGs call for worldwide action among governments, business and civil society to end poverty and create a life of dignity and opportunity for all, within the boundaries of the planet. Unlike their predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs explicitly call on all businesses to apply their creativity and innovation to solve sustainable development challenges. The SDGs have been agreed by all governments, yet their success relies heavily on action and collaboration by all actors.
In other meaning, business is the fundamental ring to achieve SDGs. The SDGs present an opportunity for business-led solutions and technologies to be developed and implemented to address the world’s biggest sustainable development challenges. They will allow leading companies to demonstrate how their business helps to advance sustainable development, both by minimizing negative impacts and maximizing positive impacts on people and the planet.
Covering a wide spectrum of sustainable development topics relevant to companies — such as poverty, health, education, climate change and environmental degradation — the SDGs can help to connect business strategies with global priorities. Companies can use the SDGs as an overarching framework to shape, steer, communicate and report their strategies, goals, and activities, allowing them to capitalize on a range of benefits such as identifying future business opportunities, enhancing the value of corporate sustainability, strengthening stakeholder relations and keeping the pace with policy developments, stabilizing societies and markets, and using a common language and shared purpose.
Ban Ki-Mon, the previous Secretary-General United Nation, states Business is a vital partner in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Companies can contribute through their core activities, and we ask companies everywhere to assess their impact, set ambitious goals and communicate transparently about the results. But, we can’t just give responsibility for a business actor without guidance. That’s why we need SDG Compass for sustainable business. This compass aims to guide companies on how they can align their strategies as well as to measure and manage their contribution to the SDGs.
Here is the mind map of how SDGs work for industries. The five steps of the SDG Compass rest on the recognition of the responsibility of all companies to comply with all relevant legislation, respect international minimum standards and address as a priority all negative human rights impacts.
Understanding the SDGs. As a first step, companies are assisted in familiarizing themselves with the SDGs.
Defining priorities. To seize the most important business opportunities presented by the SDGs and reduce risks, companies are encouraged to define their priorities based on an assessment of their positive and negative, current and potential impact on the SDGs across their value chains.
Setting goals. It is critical to business success and helps foster shared priorities and better performance across the organization. By aligning company goals with SDGs, the leadership can demonstrate its commitment to sustainable development.
Integrating. Integrating sustainability into the core business and governance, and embedding sustainable development targets across all functions within the company, is key to achieving set goals. To pursue shared objectives or address systemic challenges, companies increasingly engage in partnerships across the value chain, within their sector or with governments and civil society organizations.
Reporting and Communicating. The SDGs enable companies to report information on sustainable development performance using common indicators and a shared set of priorities. The SDG Compass encourages companies to build the SDGs into their communication and reporting with stakeholders.
The SDG Compass is developed with a focus on large multinational enterprises. Small and medium enterprises and other organizations are also encouraged to use it as a source of inspiration and adapt as necessary. It is also designed for use at the entity level but may be applied at the product, site, divisional or regional level as required.
Let’s take a small sample from SDGs 13 Climate Action. Climate Business identifies seven industry sectors that can make a crucial difference in catalyzing private investment: renewable energy, off-grid solar and energy storage, agribusiness, green buildings, urban transportation, water, and urban waste management. Can you imagine how big the impact of stakeholders guides the SDG Compass? Of course, communication should run neatly. As I write in the previous article, the biosphere layer has become the base to reach the SDGs. We strongly need a foundation.
