Remember the Sustainable Development Goals?
It’s not a facetious question. Amid all the other corporate sustainability priorities of the past few years — net zero, ESG, the circular economy, social justice, resource constraints and all the rest — not to mention a seemingly never-ending drumbeat of political upheaval, economic uncertainty and a pandemic, the SDGs seem to have fallen off the business agenda. Now, as we near the halfway point of the SDGs’ ambitious 15-year framework to tackle the world’s thorniest social, environmental and economic challenges, progress is dismal at best.
That’s the conclusion of a new United Nations report that assesses the progress being made against the 17 SDGs. It’s not at all encouraging.
Stop reading here if you want to remain blissfully ignorant, or don’t want to harsh your summer mellow with an ice-bucket reality check, or if you’d prefer to celebrate your company’s hard-earned sustainability successes without having to ask the bigger question: Are all those initiatives and achievements making a tangible difference on the global issues that matter? Read more…
