Reimagine! 2021

A world beyond the sustainable development goals

Critical times call for bold solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone but also exposed and compounded inequalities in societies, dramatically impacting progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 and present a bold vision for humanity. They are the world’s shared plan to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality and protect the planet by 2030. The immense challenges of 2020 dramatically impacted progress towards these Goals. However, it has also provided an opportunity for political and business leaders to build on the lessons learned throughout the crisis, to move beyond incremental changes, and reimagine a world where sustainable development is a way of life.

To support this aim, Equality Forward and RPC are partnering with Spotify, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, The Economist Group, Designit, the Wealthiher Women's Network, and GirlUp to bring together world-renowned experts, business leaders, social change activists, and next-generation innovators at the Reimagine! Global Summit 2021 to help accelerate progress towards a more sustainable world.

Reimagine! offers the brightest opportunity of 2021 to move beyond box-checking and create a practical framework for actions to achieve the SDGs. It is a one-day virtual global summit taking place over six thematic hours, each dedicated to key aspirational targets for businesses.

There is an incredible lineup of inspiring speakers from Minda Harts, CEO of The Memo LLC and award-winning author, to Jonathan Hicks, Senior Counsel at Netflix, and Eve Rodsky, Founder of Philanthropy Advisory Group and best-selling author of Fair Play. They aim to drive awareness, provoke debate and unlock the potential of business to be a force for good in the world.

Yours,

Michelle

The world is becoming increasingly complex. We are confronted with rising inequality, evolving investor outlooks, changing consumer behaviors, a growing population with increasing needs, and political and socio-economic unpredictability.

The 17 SDGs set by the United Nations in 2015 have a clear mission: sustainable development for all, through all, whether business, political or personal endeavors.

If you are a business leader, here are several suggestions to integrate the SDGs into your strategy:

1. Pick the goals that matter - don’t pick all of them

The range of requirements across the 17 SDGs can feel overwhelming. Try not to succumb to the pressure of focusing your company’s energy and efforts on every goal. Instead, pick one or two goals where the organization can have the most impact. If you want to support the 2030 Agenda strategically and responsibly, ask yourself: “How can we leverage business practices to support the SDGs in an effective, ambitious, and conscientious manner?” Applying a principled approach is a good start.

2. Raise the profile of SDGs

You can do this by providing educational material to stakeholders and customers, enabling employees to be SDG champions, or even sharing your most effective initiatives with your competitors. By increasing awareness of SDGs, you help keep the 2030 Agenda visible to a range of different stakeholders.

3. Practise good people governance

Improving employment practices and policies might prove to be the easiest way to contribute to some of the SDGs. Commit to being an inclusive employer by ensuring equal and fair pay for all employees, consider hiring criteria that welcome more people instead of excluding them, and reach out to communities who do not have the opportunity to participate in the industry.

4. Scrutinise your supply chain

How you select and manage your supply chain matters. Engage suppliers that share your values; monitor working conditions and take remedial action against instances of exploitative work; set supplier standards and provide technical and financial support in supply chain operations in the least developed countries to help build in resilience; and collaborate with supply chain members to reflect the full value of information before decision making.

?5. Embrace further transparency

Include more information about when, where, and how you source business materials in your products and services or how pay decisions are made. Being transparent about your actions forces you to address these issues, holds you accountable, and helps consumers make informed decisions.

?6. Consider climate mitigation practices where possible

These do not have to be costly. It can be as simple as promoting climate-conscious behavior in the workplace by examining which sustainability-related behaviors are easy for your employees to maintain and making simple changes that facilitate this behavior.?

Learn more here: How Your Company Can Advance Each of the SDGs | UN Global Compact

Developing (And Communicating) An Effective ESG, Sustainability Or Impact Framework

“With the increasing irregularities in the environment that have been linked to climate change, the management of environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals and sustainability are hot topics at the moment. They are becoming increasingly central to many businesses' strategies. Many investors want to be able to predict and measure the financial stability of a company in part by the active steps it is taking to navigate the impact of climate change. So, implementing a sound and solid ESG framework for your business is important. It shows multiple levels of leadership throughout an organization (and investors) how to navigate the hot topics of ESG, sustainability, and impact as they relate to the future of the business.”? Amanda Blair Davis, Chief Marketing Officer, Zii Technologies.

She outlines the basic steps in building an effective ESG, sustainability, and impact framework.

Read in Forbes

Go Small Or Go Home: Here’s How Exec Teams Are Getting ESG Wrong

“There’s a lot of pressure to do right when it comes to ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance). The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a much-needed framework for the future of the planet and its people, but for boardrooms – especially as businesses emerge from the pandemic, and all the uncertainty it has brought – they can be overwhelming to say the least. One mistake too many boardrooms are making is this: trying to do it all, and in turn, achieving very little.”

Read in Forbes?

ESG must learn from the tech bubble — returns matter

“Longstanding ESG fund managers — there are a few around — should compare experiences with managers of technology funds at the beginning of the dotcom boom over 20 years ago.

Everybody got the tech bug, until it ended in tears. Whether investing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria amounts to a bubble or not, ESG investors should keep sight of their financial objectives.”

Read in the Financial Times

The Green Economy Has a Resource-Scarcity Problem

“The sustainability race is on. Corporations, investors, and governments worldwide have made ambitious commitments to reduce their operations’ negative environmental and social impacts.

But there’s a problem: New solutions will inevitably trigger bottlenecks for the very resources, infrastructures, and capabilities upon which they depend. While the supply of these sustainability-related resources will expand due to investment and innovation, in many categories, rapid growth in demand will likely outstrip supply, heightening competition and pushing up prices.?

The result is that the world is entering a period of sustainability-driven scarcities, bringing new risks and opportunities — and the potential to change the dynamics of competition in many industries for the decade ahead.”

Read in Harvard Business Review

Nurture inclusivity and create a more diverse workforce

“While the market seemingly recovers from the effects of the pandemic, the recession’s effects on Black, Brown and other underrepresented communities have been devastating, with experts calling the economic comeback “the most unequal in modern US history.”?

“Economists have long sounded alarms about the country’s increasing wealth disparity, and the pandemic has only exacerbated this destabilizing rift. In the US, the top 1% earners took in nearly a quarter of all income, making 26.3 times more than the bottom 99%. According to the latest data from the Federal Reserve, “the top 1% of Americans have a combined net worth of $34.2 trillion (or 30.4% of all household wealth in the US), while the bottom 50% holds $2.1 trillion, or 1.9% of all wealth.”

Read in World Economic Forum

If you are leading a successful corporate responsibility or sustainability initiative, inspiring others to action, or know a visionary individual or non-profit organization who is, we want to hear about it!

Our Changemaker Awards celebrate, showcase, and support incredible initiatives contributing to a more prosperous, inclusive, and peaceful world.

Submit your entry here

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Copyright ? 2020 Michelle King, All rights reserved.