On September 25th
2015, the Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was officially adopted
by the United Nations General Assembly. Since then, the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) have become especially ‘hot’ in sustainability world and with policy
makers. As these goals define global priorities and aspirations for 2030, they
will definitely influence future regulations. But, what is actually behind
these goals? What is expected from the private sector? How, as a private organisation,
can you implement and work with these globally accepted goals? And more
importantly, how will results be measured and achieved?
With a set of 17 SDGs
and 169 associated targets, the SDGs define global priorities and aspirations
for the year 2030. Unlike the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which mainly focused
on developing countries, the SDGs are relevant for any organisation, in any sector.
The first 15 goals relate to the well-known triple P: people (social), planet
(ecological) and profit (economic). However the last two goals go a step
further and relate to the aspects of peace and partnerships.
The United Nation’s 193 member states which have
ratified this Sustainable Development agenda are now under pressure to set new
regulations and clear actions. However, it is not yet clear what regulations
our governments (specifically in the Benelux) will implement to achieve these
goals. This raises the question of how your organisation can stay ahead (of any
regulations) and work towards these globally accepted goals. Below we have
listed 3 steps which will help you implement the SDGs in your organisation.
Step 1. Value creation
and impact analysis
The first step is to
understand the organisation’s impact on society and the environment. This is
not a new approach as such, as a lot of organisations are already embracing
this and take the whole value chain into consideration while mapping their
value creation. Nevertheless, this approach is key in order to identify the
right and relevant sustainable goals on which to focus. In essence, if an
organisation has insight into its inputs and can clearly describe its business
activities and the unique properties of its operations, then the outputs,
outcomes and the implicit positive and negative impacts will follow naturally.
More information on value creation can be found in one of our previous blogs - October 6th.
Step 2. Identify the
right goals
Once the impacts have
been identified, the relevant SDGs can be chosen. When your organisation
selects the SDG, the number of goals should not be leading. Specifically, goals
should be selected based on their relevance for your operations and its activities.
The SDG Industry Matrices[1]
from the United Nation Global Compact can serve as a guide. They provide
industry specific information and best practice examples such as AbInbev, Heineken,
Unilever and Rabobank.
Not surprisingly, companies
that have set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) can align their strategy more
naturally to the SDGs. This is, for example, the case with Philips[2].
Its BHAG is to improve the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2025 and this
links directly to SDG number 3 – Ensure
healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Setting a BHAG
can help organisations structuring their ambitions and push them to translate a
set of results into concrete impacts on society.
Step 3. Set the right
indicators and measure the results
The most important and
challenging part is to measure the results of the chosen SDGs. Measurement
should be done with a selection of KPIs.
Although Inter-Agency
and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators provide a first
drafted set of indicators for each of the 169 targets[3],
it may not be very helpful as these KPIs are related to the global goals. We
therefore see the importance of linking the chosen SDGs to the current organisation’s
strategy and objectives. A useful tool for this has been developed by SDG
Compass[4],
which links all 169 targets with indicators from internationally recognised
standards such as GRI G4 and the CDP Benchmark.
A big challenge still
remains to realistically translate and account for an organisation’s results against
the SDGs targets and goals. This challenge relates directly to the current
trend of monetarisation and lifecycle assessments as it requires the quantitative
translation of achievements into more understandable and comparable metrics. The
Danish chemical company Novozyme has already made some steps in this area by
starting to assess the impacts of its products and solutions against the first
15 SDGs[5].
Go for it
The SDGs came right on
time. Organisations are looking for cohesion and are becoming more willing to incorporate
the impacts of their initiatives and activities on society and the environment.
Implementation of the SDGs may require your organisation to address its value
creation model or to start the journey toward monetarisation. Either way, this transformation
will definitely help your organisation to stay ahead of upcoming regulations. So
let’s use these newly framed goals to fine tune and improve your strategy!
Nick de Ruiter is a partner at Sustainalize. He is a
specialist in CSR strategy setting and performance monitoring.
Lola Debersaques is a consultant at Sustainalize for the
Belgian market. She is a specialist in CSR strategy setting, performance
monitoring and reporting.
