Companies need to set more ambitious targets to achieve SDGs by 2030

Companies need to set more ambitious targets to achieve SDGs by 2030

On the occasion of its 20th-anniversary Leaders Summit, the United Nations Global Compact, in partnership with DNV GL, released a new report looking back on 20 years of corporate sustainability progress among its business participants.

The UN Global Compact 20th-Anniversary Progress Report: Uniting Business in the Decade of Action uses data from its annual survey of participants supported by interviews with participants from around the world. A review on progress made in embedding the Ten Principles into their operations and contributing to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was conducted as part of the research.

The 20th-Anniversary Progress Report reveals only 39 percent of companies surveyed believe they have targets that are sufficiently ambitious to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Less than a third consider their industry to be moving fast enough to deliver priority SDGs. While 84 percent of companies participating in the UN Global Compact are taking action on SDGs, only 46 percent are embedding them into their core business and only 37 percent are designing business models that contribute to the SDGs.

Progress is uneven across the SDGs, the report finds, with many companies choosing to focus on Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13: Climate Action, and Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being. Meanwhile, less traction has been made in advancing the socially-focused SDGs such as reduced inequalities, gender equality, and peace, justice, and strong institutions.

Other key findings from the research include:
  • 61 percent of companies provide products and services that contribute to the SDGs (up from 48 percent in 2019).
  • 57 percent of companies are measuring the impact of their own operations relating to the SDGs but very few extend this to suppliers (13 percent), raw materials (10 percent), and into product use (10 percent).
  • Only 29 percent of companies publicly advocate the importance of action in relation to the SDGs (down from 53 percent in 2019).

Original source: UN Global Compact
Published on 15 June 2020