UN’s new sustainable development goals (SDGs) – relevance for business?

In September 2015 world leaders will meet at the UN to commit to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve three extraordinary things in the next 15 years: End extreme poverty. Fight inequality & injustice. Fix climate change. The SDGs are relevant also for business and all of us working with responsible business conduct.

See Global Goals and the UN’s pages for more on the 17 SDGs.

The link to responsible business conduct
Several of the SDGs are relevant for us workling with responsible business conduct. The OECD (The Organisation for economic cooperation and development) wishes to contribute to the SDGs, and this was highhlighted at one of the sessions at the OECD Global Forum in June 2015. The National Contact Point (NCP) of Norway follows the work of WPRBC (Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct) where this has been discussed. The Chair of WPRBC has also written an article regarding the links between the SDGs and the OECD Guidelines for multinational companies. He underlines the instrumental role that business has to play in sustainable development and that the OECD Guidelines directly support many of the aims of the SDGs. Some of the main complementarities amongst the OECD Guidelines are outlined in a table in the article.