Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) - Impact On Business - PwC

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With 193 governments agreeing to deliver 17 goals tackling major world issues by 2030, change lies ahead for business, not only to rethink strategy and business behaviour to align with the goals, but also to assess and evidence their impact.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)—impact on business

Taking action on the Global Goals

With 17 Global Goals to understand, how do you know where to start? Businesses contribution to the Goals will be key to their achievement. Each government will have its own set of priorities which will drive the action it needs to take. You’ll want your business to align with the SDGs so that it makes an impact that helps, not hinders, a country to achieve its goals. There’s much to consider not only for the country or countries you currently operate in, but also your supply chain and your future strategy to enter new markets and territories too.

Getting to grips with the targets and indicators that sit behind each goal is fundamental. You’ll want to understand what impact your business has on each and identify market opportunities too. When agreeing your strategy, you’ll want to know which initiatives and options will make the biggest positive difference or shrink a negative impact the most. You’ll want to know where to direct your attention and investment.

Supporting you on the SDG journey

• Awareness raising
• Prioritisation
• Strategy and implementation
• Measurement (SDG Strategy Analytics)
• Reporting

Awareness raising

Build the business case to engage with the SDGs

• Introduce concepts
• Explore how the SDGs are relevant for business and investors
• Understand worst performing SDGs per country, and those with most potential opportunity and impact by industry

Prioritisation

Understand which SDGs are relevant to your business

• Identify the SDGs that are most relevant to your business given your countries, territories and sectors of operation
• Evaluate which SDGs your business can best contribute to
• Identify the significant risks and potential opportunities

Strategy and implementation

Define the approach and engage internally to align business activity and practice to the SDGs

• Identify new opportunities for revenue growth
• Consider altering existing systems. eg cost reductions or system efficiencies
• Analyse which options give the highest shared value - i.e. the greatest value for the business and the greatest value for society
• Set and communicate performance indicators and targets
• Monitor and track progress

Measurement (SDG Strategy Analytics)

Measure impact and performance against the SDGs

• Quantify SDG-related impacts (using our Total Impact Measurement and Management framework) by monetising them in terms of the societal value created (or destroyed).
• Compare your contribution across different types of Goals e.g. Education vs. Health
• Contribute to improved decision making

Reporting

Align reporting to the SDGs and share progress with stakeholders

• Make it easier for stakeholders to understand your business contribution to the SDGs
• Use established standards, frameworks and business disclosures to improve your corporate reporting for the most material SDG issues to your business
• Get third party assurance on your non-financial information

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Colm Kelly

Global Sustainability Leader, PwC Ireland (Republic of)

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Lynne Baber

Deputy Global Sustainability Leader, PwC United Kingdom

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Renate de Lange-Snijders

Partner, Global Sustainability Markets Leader, PwC Netherlands

Tel: +31 (0)62 248 81 40

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Agnes Pusca

Global Sustainability Programme Director, PwC United Kingdom

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