How can businesses start contributing to UN SDGs?

Today we are hearing about heat waves in London, rising sea levels in Florida, and floods in some parts of the world. We can all see and feel the climate change effect worldwide. There is no more debate or living in denial when it comes to Climate change; the question we have to ask ourselves and from a business point of view is what we can do to protect our planet.

I am glad I completed the ‘Driving business towards the Sustainable Development Goals’ course from RSM Erasmus University.

Here are some of my key learnings on United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how businesses can start contributing toward SDG Goals, I took up the Hummingbird Challenge and realized the ‘power of one’ and how each individual can become a force for positive change.

(Source: Azote Images for Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University)

17 SDGs as a ‘Wedding cake’ shows the biosphere as the foundation of economies and societies and as the basis of all SDGs. Gives us an integrated view of social, economic, and ecological development. Listed down are all the 17 SDGs and respective actions companies can take to start contributing to UN’s SDGs goals.

SDG 1 — No Poverty

• Not to push local people out of business by destroying their markets.
• Not exploit people, not underpaying employees, and not holding back their overtime pay.
• Respecting human rights and paying a fair amount of taxes.
• Paying a living wage and not just minimum wage.
• Facilitate children to go to school to break the circle of poverty in their families
• Collaborate with local businesses in their activities to improve regional economic growth.

SDG 2 — Zero Hunger & SDG3 — Good Health & Well-being

• Invest in developing countries’ rural infrastructure and agricultural research to support the production process.
• Supporting local farmers, making sustainable food choices, and fighting food waste.
• Encourage staff to use their voting power to demand businesses and governments make the choices promoting Zero Hunger.
• Providing farmers with access to finance, insurance, and other risk management tools to help them smooth their income.
• Invest in developing countries’ rural infrastructure and agricultural research to support the production process.

SDG 4 — Quality Education

• Employee training can be initiated as part of the professional development program
• Change in roles within the organization
• Allow staff to go on sabbatical breaks to teach refugee kids or underprivileged kids
• Find skill gaps + try to bridge them, and set measurable learning objectives.

SDG 5 — Gender Equality

The global pay gap between the sexes is at 50% in 2020. Women remain under-represented at the senior level and some industries are male-dominated. 155 countries still have at least one law that limits women’s economic potential. 41 countries prohibit women from working in specific factory jobs and 21 countries do not allow women to work at night. How companies can improve gender equality in the workplace:

• Use skill-based assessments while recruiting
• Set pay based on levels
• Have women mentor men
• Make work-life balance a priority
• Provide anti-bias training

SDG 6 — Clean Water and Sanitation

• Educating Employees, encouraging them to save water
• Donate or invest money in local water or natural conservation orgs
• Avoid the use of chemicals that can be harmful to water quality
• Reduce chemical discharge to drains
• Ensure staff has a decent human life and make them aware of hygiene practices
• Develop sanitary wastewater treatment
• Develop rainwater harvesting solutions
• Focus on acquiring a new source of water from the atmosphere.

SDG 7 — Affordable & Clean Energy

• Educate yourself, fellow executives, and employees on SDG 7
• Set measurable targets to increase energy efficiency.
• Report on progress routinely.

SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth

• Promote policy against unfair hiring
• Identify child labor and forced labor
• Provide a safe and favorable working environment
• Ensure the safety of employees — get staff insured if they are working in a risky environment

SDG 9 — Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

• Finance social enterprise & non-profit organizations
• Support startups and collaborate with them to bring in social impact
• Invest in innovation that will make things affordable for everyone
• Use clean energy instead of burning fossil fuel.

SDG 10 — Reduced Inequality

As we talk today, we face racism everywhere in the world; people are discriminated against based on skin color, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. Pandemic has significantly increased existing inequalities in many countries. Refugees around the world have more than doubled since 20210

• All businesses have to respect and support human rights
• Support moments that fight against inequality
• Assist migrants and refugees in local communities
• Improve policies to support equality

SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities

• Investing in parks and green spaces
• Encourage workers to use bikes or public transport.
• Build facilities according to sustainable building practices
• Invest in resilient buildings, transportation, and green spaces
• Set up offices, and factories in tier 2 and 3 cities

SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production

• Develop impactful entrepreneurial cultures within the organizations to innovate and renew themselves.
• Start integrating sustainable development goals in their innovation, research, and development strategies.
• Make products as a service as the newer generation wants to use products and not own them.
• Embrace a Circular economy (circular product life cycle) which decouples economic growth from using natural resources by keeping products and materials at a maximum value for as long as possible.

SDG 13 — Climate Action

Companies are the key contributors to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions. Burning fossil fuels for electricity and heat, agriculture through fertilizer production, and raising livestock all contribute significantly to climate change. Ways in which companies can contribute:

• Reduce the energy consumption of their factories
• Employ low-emissions vehicles
• Increase the use of renewable energy
• Use sustainable and bio-based raw materials.
• To complement all the above — Governments must introduce carbon taxes and reward firms for lowering their carbon footprints.

SDG 14 — Life below Water

Impacts on the world’s oceans include consumers’ excessive use of disposable plastics and heavy application of fertilizer in agriculture. Why not start with these changes:

• Invest in R&D projects to reduce plastic packaging, which will save the company money and prevent waste and pollution from wasted plastics, and provide examples for other firms to follow.
• Other firms will learn from the innovator’s research efforts and can adopt the technology at a lower cost.
• Governments must tax companies who contribute to pollution.
• Invest in ocean cleaning, wastewater treatment, sustainable fish farming, and Sustainable fish feed markets projects.

SDG 15 — Life on Land

• Measure, manage and mitigate impacts on ecosystems and natural resources.

• Scale-up best practices for land use planning and management.
• Invest in natural infrastructure as a cost-competitive alternative to grey infrastructure.
• Finance the restoration of degraded land for production and/or conservation purposes.
• Support and apply landscape approaches based on multi-stakeholder dialogue and collaborative action to overcome social and environmental fracture lines in landscapes facing deforestation, land, and ecosystem degradation.
• Commit to and implement responsible sourcing practices beyond compliance — applying environmental and social safeguards for all raw materials and commodities.
• Expand markets for responsible forest products and thereby support sustainable forest management.
• Foster product and technology innovation to optimize resource efficiency, reduce ecosystem impacts, and lower carbon emissions.
• Scale-up industrial reuse of water and support watershed protection programs.

SDG 16 — Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Companies can promote peace, justice, and inclusion, by preventing exploitation, adhering to labor standards, or curbing corruption by appointing diverse management teams to enhance the openness of the leadership environment and publicly reporting on political contributions and lobbying activities throughout their supply chain. Businesses can, thus, not only provide investment to the progress of SDG 16 through resources but also champion ways of doing business that advance peace, justice, and inclusion.

SDG 17 — Partnerships for the goals

Every one of us can contribute to the SDG’s goals in a big and small way, and it will positively impact climate change. More important is that the public and private sectors must join forces; innovators need space to collaborate and support innovation through all process stages, from researching needs and developing a response to monitoring impact. UN encourages further developing partnerships with the private sector and the investment community to strengthen the peacebuilding impact of companies, set conflict-sensitive investment guidelines, and explore potential contributions to United Nations SDG goals.

Finally……

Let’s not forget we all live in an interconnected world.

The SDGs provide a positive framework for change.

They are a call to collective action.

As we continue on our way, trying to make a change, in your life and guiding your company ……remember, if you want to go fast, go alone and if you want to go far, go together. Businesses need to put Purpose and People before Profits in order to combat climate challenges.

We need to partner up and take positive action to address our wicked problems. I hope you got some inspiration from this post and will inspire others to contribute to peace and prosperity for people and our planet.