The Make-or-Break Decade for the SDGs has begun

Those who commit themselves to the SDGs are committed
to society and the environment. Such action is not only
done for philanthropic reasons, but also due to self-interest:
No company can work successfully in an environment where
global problems such as climate change remain unsolved.
What Does
Good SDG
Management
Look Like?
By Dr. Elmer Lenzen
The Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)
were originally intended to
be used by governments to
measure their commitment
to sustainability. However,
they are now increasingly
being adopted by companies.
Integrating the SDGs
into in-house control and
management systems is
not easy. In this article, we
explain the right steps.
This consideration requires adopting a risk perspective, but
it also presents opportunities: Companies can find a business
case within the SDGs that opens up new markets and creates
innovation. Especially in global supply chains, the SDGs offer
important opportunities. However, as the responsible manager
in the company, you must understand that the SDGs are not
just another sustainability standard or reporting framework.
They do not include specific metrics. The SDGs provide global
goals, and managers must align their internal control and management
systems with this compass. That sounds complicated.
And in fact, it is. But there are forms of support.
The best known is the SDG Compass. To make it easier for
companies to integrate the SDGs into their infrastructures
and implement targeted measures, the UN Global Compact
– in collaboration with the Global Reporting Initiative and
the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
(WBCSD) – developed a five-step guide that offers approaches
to aligning corporate action along the SDGs and assistance
with reporting.
Equally important, in our view, are the WBCSD’s SDG Sector
Roadmaps. In April 2018, the WBCSD published a set of SDG
Sector Roadmap Guidelines detailing a step-by-step methodology
for how companies within a given industry can come
together and explore their collective potential to advance
the SDG agenda.
In the following, we would like to give you some useful tips for
implementation. In doing so, we are following the three-step
approach of the WBCSD: The starting point is the status quo.
Understanding where you stand and honestly admitting your
own strengths as well as weaknesses is the most important
step. This is where the course is set and can only be changed
with great efforts. (Figure 1)
How do you avoid “rainbow washing”?
“Rainbow washing” is the term used to describe undifferentiated
reporting using the colorful SDG tiles. The term is derived
from greenwashing. It describes the simple assignment of
the SDGs to already existing activities, without the intent to
improve. A corporate approach to the SDGs must therefore
always include goals and measures that demonstrate further
development.
38 Global Goals Yearbook 2021