In our largest analysis of published reporting on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to date, we explored over 1,000 company reports to find out how businesses are engaging with the SDGs. The results suggest that, while there is a general acknowledgement of the importance of the goals, there is room for more concrete action to take place in support of the SDGs if the SDGs are to be achieved by 2030.
At PwC, we’re committed to helping you engage with and embed the SDGs into strategy and operations. With that in mind, we took a look at business engagement with the SDGs, integration into strategy and top level support.
Explore the themes
- Business engagement and integration
- Executive leadership
- The focus on individual goals
- Adopting an SDG target-based approach
Business engagement and integration
Nearly three quarters of the companies (72%) considered in our study publicly mentioned the SDGs in their reporting publications. Of the companies that mentioned the SDGs, 59% referenced them as part of their sustainability report while just over half (51%) mentioned them in their annual report. However, just 34% of those that mentioned the SDGs (25% of all companies analysed), did so in sections of their reporting that discussed business strategy.
Executive leadership
Over a fifth (21%) of the companies we analysed made specific mention of the SDGs in the CEO or Chair statement (up from 13% in 2018) – indicating that the goals are moving up the executive agenda. This could be prompted by regulation, growing investor pressure or forward thinking strategy.
The focus on individual goals
Of the companies we analysed, 65% mentioned specific SDGs. Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG8) is the most popular goal identified by business (as it has been for the last two years).
Adopting an SDG target-based approach
From our point of view, how companies are focusing on the 169 targets that underpin the 17 goals is a good indication of whether they’re integrating the goals into business strategy. This year’s findings indicate that only 14% (157 companies) mentioned specific SDG targets. Of those, 39% are setting qualitative ambitions and 20% are setting quantitative ambitions. Only 8% are reporting quantitative measures to show their progress towards targets (which is only 1% of all the companies we analysed).
