In September 2015, all 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted a plan for achieving a better future for all – laying out a path over the next 15 years to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect our planet. This plan in laid out in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which businesses and business schools around the world are currently engaging with.
Here are 5 key resources to help you with your journey. For more resources, visit the PRME and Global Compact websites.
1.Management Education and the Sustainable Development Goals, a new publication by the PRME Secretariat, provides an overview of why signatories should engage in the SDGs and how they can do so. This short publication provides a series of ways that signatories can contribute, including:
- Aligning curriculum and research to the SDG commitments and agenda
- Seeking more applied research around the SDGs that can create solutions to help businesses be more effective and sustainable
- Acting as leaders of public opinion, advisors, suppliers of knowledge and solutions and mediators among businesses, government and civil society in support of the SDGs.
- Connecting and collaborating regionally and locally with PRME Chapters and Global Compact Local Networks
2. SDG Campus provides guidance for companies on how they can align their strategies as well as measure and manage their contribution to the realisation of the SDGs. It can be used within curriculum to explore business engagement in the SDGs, but can also provide a toolkit to help business schools think about their own contributions and strategies in this area. It provides a step 5-step process:
- Understanding the SDGs, the business case and the baselines
- Defining priorities by mapping the value chain to identify impact areas,selecting indicators and collecting data
- Setting KPIs, defining a baseline and setting goals
- Anchoring sustainability goals within the business and embedding them across all functions
- Reporting and communicating on SDG performance
3. The Sustainable Development Goals Website provides information beyond the 17 goals. Don’t forget to read about the specific targets (169) related to each goal as these really break down the broader issues. You are likely to find several points that you, as an individual within a business school, or you, as a business school, are interested in, or are already engaged in. The website provides a range of resources related to specific issues that are part of the SDGs, but also information on how countries are responding to the SDGs and how to track progress.
4. A Basic Guide to the Sharing Information on Progress (SIP). Use your SIP as an opportunity to take stock of which SDGs you are already engaged in and which you need to be moving forward with by reporting on progress and future goals. Reporting can be an effective tool for facilitating stakeholder dialogue, building a learning community among other schools and communicating your impact. Recently submitted reports are already starting to report on the SDGs.
5. Business-Business School Partnerships: Partnerships isn’t just Goal 17 of the SDGs, it is a crucial part of all of SDGs. Business schools and businesses can collaborate to co-create solutions for sustainability challenges, win-win partnerships that can yield fresh and innovative input to a company’s engagement in the SDG. The toolkit provides a series of examples of how companies and business schools are working together. For more examples, read:
- 8 Tips for Developing Strong Business-Business School Partnerships
- Eight+ Places to find Business Partners for your Sustainability Projects
- 5 Key Messages from Businesses to Business Schools Around Sustainability
- Series on how Business Schools are working with Global Compact local networks
Of course, don’t forget to keep following PRiMEtime, featuring good practices of PRME signatories around the world and, in particular, how they are engaging in the SDGs. Continue to follow the blog to read about specific ways that schools are engaging and making an impact in relation to the SDGs and get inspired. You can now search for recent articles based on which of the SDGs they focus on. Some articles that may be of interest include:
Make sure you share your SDG initiatives on social media using the following tags: #PRME, #SDGs and #GlobalGoals
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