The Regional Sustainability Initiative is excited to bring Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Progress Tracking to Reporting Members! The Sustainable Development Goal Action Manager (SDG AM), a tool created by the UN Global Compact and B-Lab was developed by B-Lab to allow companies to internally assess their operations against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 interconnected goals agreed upon by 193 UN members in 2015. They are a blueprint for bettering people and the planet by 2030. The SDGs call for deep transformation, in which businesses are expected to participate and lead by rethinking business models and by using a collective voice for further action.
SDG Progress Tracking will replace the current E-score reporting milestone. The SDG AM and previously the E-Score are both meant to be internal performance trackers, rather than verified external communication tools. As we are now less than 10 years away from the 2030 deadline of reaching the SDGs, this decade is being called the “Decade of Action,” in which there is an urgent need to increase action across all sectors in order to meet the Goals. The SDG AM is an impact management solution for businesses, designed to help businesses set goals and track progress on actions toward the SDGs. We believe SDG Progress Tracking is a unique way for members to contextualize their local impact with the #GlobalGoals.
The transition for current E-Score reporting members will be relatively smooth. The SDG AM utilizes select questions from the overall B Impact Assessment (BIA) completed for E-Score that map to specific SDGs. In many cases, questions within the SDG AM are identical to questions from the BIA, allowing members who completed the BIA to have their responses automatically mapped to the SDGs. While previous responses under the E-Score will be mapped to the SDG AM, companies should expect to answer additional questions to assess their progress against the SDGs that are relevant to their business.
The Regional Sustainability Initiative has identified 5 core modules within the SDG AM that most closely align to the program framework and member progress towards these goals will be reported in SWR’s Year-End Report in place of previous E-Scores. Additional modules and SDG progress tracking is available, but optional within the reporting framework. The 5 core modules that will be reported on are:
SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 13 – Climate Action
If you’re a business interested in learning more consider attending Green Economy Canada’s free webinar “A Better Business, A Better World” on November 18 to learn how you can build a better business and a better world by aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While many large corporations have started to align their business strategies with the SDGs, most smaller organizations have not yet begun to view their sustainability work through the lens of the SDGs. Event details are included below.
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm ET
Location: Zoom Webinar
Registration: https://betterbusiness-sdgs.eventbrite.ca
If you’re already a member and are keen to get started, contact the Regional Sustainability Initiative program team today: wrsi@sustainablewr.ca
About the author:
Stacey O’Sullivan is a recent graduate of the Master of Climate Change program at the University of Waterloo. As an intern with Sustainable Waterloo Region this past summer, she completed research to help evolve the previous E-Score program into SDG progress tracking. Stacey came to SWR through a partnership with the TRANSFORM Research Project, and was funded in part by the MITACS Accelerate program. The TRANSFORM project is an international research project headquartered at the University of Waterloo, which aims to develop case studies of deeply sustainable small to medium sized enterprises to support the further implementation of sustainable business practices in the private sector. Along with her projects for SWR, Stacey also collected data and built case studies from four SWR members for the TRANSFORM project over the course of her internship.