Companies and the SDGs

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Companies and the SDGs

Companies and the SDGs

Blanquerna-URL invites institutions and the business world to support projects that go beyond each organization, so that together we can bring about a more sustainable world.

The Blanquerna Impulsa Awards seek to create a network of companies, universities and schools, in line with the spirit of the last SDG, number 17, which urges us to: "Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships."

For organizations interested in working to further the SDGs, we attach some extracts from the documents The Contribution of Spanish Companies to the Sustainable Development Goals. First and Second Reports, prepared by the SDG Observatory set up and managed by la Caixa and Esade.

The role of companies

The United Nations Organization considers companies to be a key agent for the achievement of the SDGs, both locally and internationally.

The Global Compact is a United Nations initiative whose mandate is to take the SDGs to the private sector and make it possible for companies to contribute to achieving them.

Through reports such as SDG Compass, companies are recommended to take action in five areas to help them maximize their contribution:

Understanding the SDGs.
Identifying priorities. Communicating and reporting.
Setting milestones or indicators.
Integrating the SDGs into the company.
Communicating and reporting.

Opportunities

They allow the company a better positioning.
They improve stakeholder groups' perception of the company.
They help to focus on global contextual challenges that affect all companies.
They provide an external element of reflection on contributions that in some cases were already being made, but not in a conscious and coordinated way.
They favor the need for integration to ensure that it is not merely an aesthetic element.
They encourage others to join in and create responsible enterprises to make a better world.
They make internal and external communication more consistent, uniform and comparable.
They turn problems into business opportunities or a chance to innovate.

Responsibilities

When their activity has a cross-cutting impact, companies feel entreated.
Companies are required to accept responsibilities beyond specific impacts, considering global challenges and proposing how to mitigate them.
Need to be aware of inclusive services.
Need to generate a paradigm shift in the contribution made by the company and how it is measured.
Need for the sector to join forces, e.g., in terms of standards in the supply chain.
Need to take on the role of a global agent, a corporate citizen.
Need to incorporate the habit and the conviction of integrated reporting (accountability).
Design tools, processes and projects strategically, linking them to future challenges.

Types of partnership, processes and value creation

We can identify three types of partnership in which any company can play a role. The institutional logic of the partners, their organizational cultures, goals and values are factors that directly affect the partnership and must be taken into account. We can distinguish the following forms of cooperation through partnerships.

According to the dimension of the SDG to which they refer

International cooperation perspective.
Governance perspective.

According to the nature of its members

Public-private.
Private-private.
Private-civil society.

Depending on the level of commitment between the parties

Exchange.
Combination/integration.
Transformation.