The SDGs lead the way
Content:
The SDGs have this impact on your company
- Hooray, rainbow dressing is over
- Make your SDGs tangible
- Take the sustainability journey
The million-dollar question remains: how do you objectify SDG-driven values such as climate- and environment-friendliness, social well-being, diversity, circular resource management, social entrepreneurship,… into tangible and quantifiable goals? Without it feeling like cumbersome straitjacket?
Hooray, rainbow dressing is over
Many companies are still searching, but are taking more and more steps in the right direction. In other words, they are realising that the era of cherry-picking and rainbow dressing, as economist Wayne Visser calls it, is over. Companies cherry-picking a few SDGs (their colours at least) do not see the bigger picture. ‘They often try to maximise one thing, for example profit. They focus in a very linear way on one crop or one type of product. If you limit yourself to a few issues when it comes to sustainability, perhaps you won’t even notice how they’re related to the rest. Take the energy industry for example: biofuel was seen as a miracle solution for some time, but biofuel came with the unintended side effect that it started to replace food crops. Competition over farmland for either food or biofuel arose. That led to an increase of food prices for a while. We must consider the consequences of our actions.’
It is naturally impossible to focus on all 17 SDGs at the same time, but do realise they are all interconnected. And realise that everyone(!) can and must contribute, as an individual, as government, organisation, company, … Each initiative must fit in systemically and must be connected with each other in an integrated and holistic sustainability strategy.
Make your SDGs tangible
Although all 17 SDGs are interconnected and are equally important, as company or organisation you can work step by step – of course always with the bigger picture in mind – and start with identifying those domains and making them tangible (‘materialising’) that will have the biggest impact on what you do and what you want to achieve and what your internal and external stakeholders expect.
SDGs become tangible when they become quantifiable and thus comparable through the ESG criteria (Environment, Social and Governance). For instance, the environmental criteria examine to what degree a company contributes and perform regarding environmental challenges (e.g. waste, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and climate change). The social criteria determine the way a company treats the employees (e.g. management of social capital, diversity and equal opportunities, working conditions, health and safety and misleading sales). Finally, the governance criteria examine the way a company is governed (e.g. remuneration of management, tax practices and strategy, corruption and bribery and broader diversity and structure). In addition, the ESG analysis is not limited to the current situation and considers future trends and evolutions as well. However, it remains extremely difficult to anticipate new or future social and technological developments with the current criteria. The technology evolves incredibly fast, which is why a project can always be more sustainable than originally expected. Objectifying sustainability is in other words an alive long-term process.
‘What do you want to achieve and what do your internal and external stakeholders expect?’
[7] ‘Distributed Work’s Five Levels of Autonomy’: https://ma.tt/2020/04/five-levels-of-autonomy/
[8] Andrew Winston (@andrewwinston) is a globally recognised expert in the field of building resilient, profitable companies that put people and planet centre stage. Read his column on: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/whats-lost-when-we-talk-esg-and-not-sustainability/
[9] Communicating about a commendable vision without practicing what you preach.
The example above of such a materialisation analysis [10] brings together the SDGs and the SDG goals into a matrix. As some of the most relevant goals are strongly connected, we clustered them in this case. That resulted in seven focus topics: carbon neutrality, growth and development, employee well-being, inclusive diversity, corporate governance and responsible leadership, partnerships and the development of sustainable ESG solutions. There is no such thing as a one size fits all application. The results and execution will never be the same in two different companies. It’s important that each in accordance to their own abilities and knowledge adapts or reinvents their sustainability strategy and well-being culture.
Take the sustainability journey
Whether you’re only getting started with a sustainability journey or you want to boost an existing programme, each company must take steps to do business sustainably in an impactful way. Consultant BDO [11] speaks of a ‘sustainability journey’, a journey in the direction of sustainable entrepreneurship in various waves: from strategy planning and implementation of it to reporting, to ‘assurance’ (with which we mean that the reporting about the ESG actions is accurate and compliant). The order depends on the specific context and the request of the involved actors. The important thing is that you go through each wave and elevate your knowledge and skills to the higher level.
A similar step-by-step plan (with five steps instead of four) can be found in the ‘SDG Compass – The guide for business action on the SDGs’, a tool developed collaboratively by the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), the UN Global Compact and the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development). By means of examples from all links of the process the guide helps you align your strategy to the SDGs and – importantly! – afterwards monitor and report your impact. You can download the (French and English) guide for free on https://sdgcompass.org/. Another handy tool is the Sustatool developed by MVO Vlaanderen for SMEs and smaller organisations. You can register for the Susatool on https://mvovlaanderen.be/sustatool/home.
[10] Sustainability report BDO Belgium – fiscal year 2021: www.bdo.be/nl-be/publicaties/rapporten/2021/sustainability-report-2021
[11] To The Point-magazine 2/2022 – BDO Belgium – copyright BDO Belgium
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