More than 150 world leaders today will commit to 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that aim to tackle climate change and end poverty, among others, by 2030, at the UN Summit on Sustainable Development at UN Headquarters in New York.
The SDGs will replace the millennium development goals as the new global goals to be accomplished in the next 15 years.
To coincide with the SDGs, Corporate Citizenship, a global management consultancy specializing in sustainability, has published a study showing:
- Nearly a quarter of practitioners working in business say that while they were aware of the global goals, they have no current plans to do anything about them.
- A further four in 10 are currently exploring the implications — but not yet taking any action.
- Just one in five say their company is currently involved in a collaboration on the SDGs.
- Sixteen percent say their business is not currently aware of them.
- The survey was undertaken in August 2015 and received over 200 responses from organizations around the world.
Based on the survey findings, Corporate Citizenship’s report From ‘My World’ To ‘Our World’ — What the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mean for Business outlines the five things that businesses can do to realize the opportunity from the global goals:
- Assess the SDGs against company policies and practices.
- Use the SDGs to inform strategy development.
- Review the SDGs as part of target setting.
- Apply the SDGs to impact monitoring and measurement.
- Consider the SDGs as part of reporting, such as an SDG index.
