What are the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and why should you care?
Opportunities and challenges for businesses.
About five years ago, the United Nations' global leaders agreed to 17 universal goals for a better planet by 2030. These comprehensive targets give us guidance to practically address the climate emergency and create better living conditions for everyone. It is now up to businesses and governments to work together as we entered the decade of delivery.
Unfortunately, we are currently behind in achieving the SDGs for the 2030 deadlines. Just policymaking doesn’t cut it. Businesses, alongside governments, will have to step up to the plate and make sure they have an increasingly active role in addressing today’s most pressing challenges.
Getting to grips with the targets and indicators that sit behind each goal is fundamental to understanding your business's impact. Not only will aligning your strategies to the SDGs make a difference in achieving them, but it can also uncover entirely new business opportunities.
You need to know where to direct your attention and investments.
But first, what are the goals, and why do we need them?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs are a set of universal goals that member states of the United Nations are expected to use to frame their policies. These indicators came into action in 2015 and are set to be fulfilled in 2030. It’s a considerable expansion of the Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs’ predecessors.
The initial MDGs only had eight pillars and failed to consider some of the root causes of, for example, poverty and gender inequality. They were too narrow and did not consider the differences in economic development between wealthy countries and poorer countries. In response to the feedback, the UN conducted one of the largest consultation programs in history and developed the much more inclusive current SDGs.
Here are the 17 goals as we know them today
- End poverty in all its forms everywhere
- End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
- Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
- Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
- Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
- Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all
- Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all
- Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation
- Reduce inequality within and among countries
- Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
- Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development
- Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss
- Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
These global goals come with specific subgoals with their own deadlines. One of the targets for SDG 14, for example, is to prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds by 2025.
Another target, linked to SDG 7, is to enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy and technology.
Why government policies alone are not enough
Each member state has set its own priorities to drive the actions needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in their parts of the world. Some governments are not as keen as others, stating that 17 goals are way too many. However, critics believe that certain governments, such as the UK, are uncomfortable with the more difficult to achieve goals, specifically those related to the environment.
As a company, you want to align with the SDGs to make a positive impact, instead of hindering sustainable development. In fact, it is imperative.
Government agendas are, unfortunately, not flexible enough on their own to meet critical deadlines. And let’s face it, businesses can’t succeed in societies that are failing. Investing in the SDGs, therefore, supports all pillars of business success. The ability to rapidly influence the way we consume, produce, and innovate makes corporations major drivers of solving sustainable development challenges.
An opportunity for businesses
The SDGs also present an opportunity for companies to develop and partner with solutions and technologies to address the world’s biggest challenges. As sustainability is going mainstream, use the SDGs as an overarching framework to shape, steer, and report your company’s future goals and activities. It can strengthen engagement with customers, employees, and investors. Those that don’t will be facing expanding legal and reputational risks.
Take action today
Start by assessing the current positive and negative impact your business activities have on the planet. This helps identify where the positive impact can be scaled up, and the negative can be reduced. You will then have a practical map to guide setting specific goals across your entire organization. Aligning to the SDGs and their targets make these goals more meaningful and measurable.
Be transparent
Making your company goals public can be a powerful tool in engaging stakeholders such as employees and customers. Communicating regularly and transparently about progress made and the challenges you face is vital in the era of changemakers who have an unprecedented grasp of the global complexities facing their generation.
This article is written in collaboration with Proof of Impact. POI unites businesses that fund impact, with organizations that create impact. Sign up for updates via the website or follow our journey on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
