Sustainable Development Goals: How companies can operate sustainably

SDGs for politics, the economy, and society

The climate crisis is affecting countless aspects of our everyday lives, including having to protect our homes against extreme weather events, working in offices that are overheating as each summer sets new records for high temperatures, and taking evening strolls through storm-ravaged countryside. It will therefore take a concerted effort to make the transition to a sustainable way of life and doing business. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals offer a blueprint for how companies can become part of this effort and lead the way through the transition process. The most important Sustainable Development Goals for companies of all types include:

• Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
• Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
• Sustainable Development Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• Sustainable Development Goals 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
• Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Depending on what part of the world you are in, some of these goals may relate to completely different situations and circumstances. Despite that, however, they outline potential opportunities for everyone to improve those situations and circumstances, drive social progress, and implement business sustainability strategies in our individual companies.

Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

In a corporate context, companies should pay particular attention to ensuring that they provide a healthy working environment; one that addresses both the physical and mental health of their employees.

Steps you can take within your company:

• Use training to raise awareness of health risks at work. This also applies to helping office staff prevent back problems.
• Make sure that healthy eating options are available in offices and cafeterias.
• Introduce mental health days – days off that employees can use specifically to look after their mental health.

Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

This sustainability goal primarily relates to manufacturing products and procuring raw materials, which can cause water pollution – particularly given the lack of transparency in the production chains involved in a global economy. Water pollution frequently has disastrous consequences for the local population, but companies that are not involved can also support water protection initiatives that make a real difference and use green marketing measures to share them publicly.

Steps you can take within your company:

• Make sure you have an overview of the full supply chain.
• Encourage companies that you partner with to switch to sustainable production methods that prevent water pollution.
• Support initiatives to create more clean water around the world.

Sustainable Development Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth is beyond the capacity of any individual company and requires more broadly based initiatives involving several companies. But somebody has to kickstart these initiatives and lead the way, so why not your business? Actively sharing and publicizing the steps you are taking to create a modern way of working is an opportunity for you to raise your profile as an employer in the industry and attract new employees who share your convictions.

Steps you can take within your company:

• Opt for a sustainable way of working and make your company more people focused.
• Actively share and publicize the steps you are taking.
• Kickstart small initiatives that will combine to create a movement and could become big enough to make a difference.

Sustainable Development Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

We have already touched on the issue of sustainable production in Sustainable Development Goal 6, relating to clean water. Beyond that, however, your company can also significantly influence sustainable consumption and how people use your product or your service. If your company makes sustainability an integral part of its ethos, then it needs to be incorporated into everything from production and provision right through to usage and recycling.

Steps you can take within your company:

• Implement sustainable production with recyclable raw materials. This can also be done for online applications; for example, by opting for green hosting.
• Make sure your products can be repaired or solutions reused.
• Digitalize your work processes and design your offices to be paper-free.

Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Sustainable Development Goal 13 includes a multitude of steps that your company can take. It reflects the belief that we can overcome the climate crisis, and that nobody needs to bury their head in the sand as long as we all start acting and doing business in ways that protect the environment. So we all need to take steps and encourage initiatives that support a world that is still worth living in for future generations.

Steps you can take within your company:

• Where possible, switch to climate-neutral working processes.
• Encourage initiatives like tree planting projects that will make an immediate difference.
• Raise awareness of the need for more environmental protection – at work and at home.

Creating a sustainable future with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals are challenging and optimistic. We are all – governments, companies, and private individuals – responsible for embodying them and implementing them in practical terms. The steps listed here can be used as a kind of SDG compass, offering guidance where possible. Ultimately, however, it is up to your company to recognize how and where it can be most effective, and which steps it can take to help create a more sustainable future