SDG

Insights Report
September, 2021

How Businesses Are Engaging, Performing& Improving on the Sustainable
Development Goals:
Key Insights from the SDG Action Manager

Developed By:
Michele Bradley, Senior Data Analyst, B Lab Global
Charlie Fraioli, Senior Standards Analyst, B Lab Global
Dan Osusky, Head of Standards and Insights, B Lab Global

Acknowledgments:
Special thanks to David Leathers, Sherri Jordan, Molly Uxa-Chakravarty, Beelan Yonas,
Hannah Munger, Alex Mendoza Farias, and Neila Benamara from B Lab Global and B Lab
Europe for their contributions and feedback, to the UN Global Compact for their partnershipin developing the SDG Action Manager, and to Generation Foundation, Emmanuel Faber,
Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for their ﬁnancial support in building
and launching the SDG Action Manager and creating this report.

Note that the opinions expressed in this report are the opinion of B Lab only.

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Contents

1

Introduction

2

Key Insights

3

SDG
Engagement

4

SDG
Performance

Insights regarding which SDGs

Insights on which SDGs businesses arebusinesses are focused on, and how

performing better or worse on, includingthat varies by region.

which aspects of their business tend tocontribute most.

5

SDG Goal Setting& Improvement
Insights on which SDGs and which

6

types of practices businesses are setting

Snapshots:
Gender Equality &Climate Action
Summaries of best practices

concrete improvement goals on.

and speciﬁc engagement points
on each SDG.

7
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Conclusions
Overarching conclusions and the needfor additional action.

8

About B Lab

3

1 Introduction
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the key component of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, not only
identify where we have to be by 2030 to create the sustainable world we seek, but are also a unique
opportunity for all sectors of the economy to rally around a common global agenda to end poverty,
protect the planet, and ensure a shared and durable prosperity for all. As part of this collective callto action, businesses have a new “north star” regarding their sustainability performance for aworld in constant change, and they recognize the signiﬁcant business opportunity that the SDGs
offer, as well as the risk of not addressing the core social and environmental issues of our time.

Surprisingly, there has not already been a lot said about business engagement on the SDGs. For
example:●A majority of companies, from a selection of UN Global Compact Signatories surveyed in2020 — 84 percent — report taking speciﬁc action to advance the SDGs. Most companies
report taking action towards Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 3: Good
Health and Well-being, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production and Goal 13:
Climate Action.¹●

In 2019, a PwC analysis of over 1,000 company reports indicated that 72% of companies
mentioned the SDGs in their reporting, 25% of companies included the SDGs in their
published business strategy, 21% of CEO or Chair statements include reference to the SDGs,
and 14% of companies mentioned speciﬁc SDG targets.²●

Back in 2018, a survey indicated that only 6% of World Business Council for Sustainable
Development surveyed companies had set new SDG related targets.³¹ UN Global Compact 20th-Anniversary Progress Report: Uniting Business in the Decade of Action.
² PwC SDG Challenge 2019.
³ Business and the SDGs: A survey of WBCSD members and Global Network partners.

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1 Introduction
At the same time, the context around the SDGs has shifted considerably.
According to the GlobeScan Sustainability Leaders Survey, experts’ perceptions of the private
sector’s contribution to sustainable development have declined in recent years.⁴
And the COVID-19 pandemic has had severe negative impacts on most SDGs and shifted thepriorities of businesses.⁵

How can one make sense of all this information? In short, action on the Sustainable Development
Goals by business is at risk of stagnation, and if one looks deeper at even the periods of progress,
there has always been a lot of limitations, and a lot more to do. At the same time the challenges theworld is facing are compounding, meaning business performance towards achieving the SDGs isfalling further and further behind. With less than a decade to achieve them, it’s necessary to course
correct, and business must play an essential role in accelerating progress.

This report has two objectives. First, it is designed to complement the many other reports andanalyses on business action on the SDGs, several of which are already referenced above.
Each of these reports and surveys have used representative samples of different types of companies
or publicly available information, largely focused on large and publicly-traded companies, with lessavailable information from a broader range of company sizes and types. This analysis complements
and expands on these previous analyses by leveraging data from more than 1,700 companies thathave used the SDG Action Manager, B Lab’s impact management solution for business action on the
SDGs. These companies cut across a broader cross-section of businesses including those bothprivately held and publicly traded, and from all sizes, sectors, and regions around the world. Moreinformation about the SDG Action Manager and the data used in this report can be found on pages
seven through nine.

⁴ Globescan Sustainability Leaders Survey.
⁵ Sustainable Development Report 2020: The Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19.

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1 Introduction
Furthermore, while still based on self-reported data, this analysis provides a unique look at
engagement and performance in a practical way, since companies have utilized the SDG Action
Manager for their own internal management, not speciﬁcally to respond to a public survey. Data
sets feature speciﬁc practices that contribute to the SDGs, allowing the analysis to go beyond ‘thetalk’ and explore ‘the walk.’ While respecting the conﬁdentiality of the users of the tool (noindividual company indicators are shared in this report), the result of our analysis is a more candid
and practical inside look at the speciﬁc focus areas and actions that companies indicate they are
engaging in through the SDG Action Manager. Where relevant and appropriate, we will shareinsights from the SDG Action Manager alongside external data sources like the reports above tohighlight where there are both convergences and divergences.
Second, this report is not designed to provide a purely neutral, unbiased presentation of data.
This report builds on other studies to argue that the world needs more action from businesses on
the SDGs. Based on B Lab’s experience developing the SDG Action Manager, as well as our 15 years
focused on systems change in order to produce a more equitable, inclusive, and regenerative
economy, we offer speciﬁc perspectives about what, where, and how that action needs to happen —using the data we have so far to help tell that story. While this analysis will certainly help inform B
Lab’s own future work, the intent of this report is for its data and perspectives to be used by others— businesses, policymakers, and other stakeholders — to inform their own actions, and to sharebroadly in order to invite dialogue and inspire action on these important issues.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any feedback or questions please reach out to insights@bcorporation.net.

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1 Introduction
About the Data Used For This Analysis
The insights in this report have been developed based on external research (referenced whenused) and usage data of the SDG Action Manager from its launch in January 2020 through May 2021.
More than 15,000 companies have engaged with the SDG Action Manager in some way, but for the
purposes of this analysis, data is based on over 1,700 companies from all over the world, in a wide
range of industries and company sizes. They include, but are not limited to, Certiﬁed B
Corporations (B Corps) and UN Global Compact signatories. For each data point, you can accessfootnotes to better understand the exact data parameters used to inform the analysis.
While many companies may engage with the SDG Action Manager in a limited fashion, the data inthis report is limited to those companies who have not only completed the introductory Baseline
module of the tool but also at least one SDG speciﬁc module, as it is a good signiﬁer of an engaged
company and it is possible to be more conﬁdent in the data obtained from this group. Below are pie
charts demonstrating the sample size in this group of companies. While there is broad regional,
size, and sectoral representation, it is most common for companies engaged in the SDG Action
Manager to be located in Europe, have between one and nine employees, and be in the Service
industry.
All analysis has been done in accordance with the SDG Action Manager’s terms and conditions
to preserve the conﬁdentiality of individual company data. All performance data is self-reported bycompanies and has not been veriﬁed. While this data provides a unique and signiﬁcant data set bywhich to analyze broader trends in SDG engagement by business, comparable to other previous
reports referenced throughout, B Lab also recognized some potential limitations in the data. This
includes potential selection bias in the user base compared to all businesses globally, inaccurate
answers provided by companies, as well as the potential inﬂuence of speciﬁc design features of the
SDG Action Manager itself on engagement and reported performance. Nonetheless, there are many
powerful insights that can be derived from the data.

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1 Introduction
Company Region

Company Size

Company Sector

Company Industry© B Lab 2021

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1 Introduction
About the SDG Action Manager
Developed by B Lab and the UN Global Compact, the SDG Action Manager is a web-based impact
management solution to enable businesses to take action on the Sustainable Development Goals
through 2030.
The SDG Action Manager brings together elements of B Lab’s B Impact Assessment and the Ten
Principles of the UN Global Compact, as well as their joint content expertise, to enable meaningfulbusiness action through dynamic self-assessment, benchmarking, and improvement. It is informedby existing SDG business initiatives and the work and feedback of a range of stakeholders, including
experts in corporate sustainability, civil society, the United Nations, and academia; and it isinspired by the B Corp community and participating companies of the UN Global Compact.
The SDG Action Manager is organized into 17 modules, representing a required ‘Baseline’ focusedon the UN Global Compact 10 Principles and the SDGs broadly, and sixteen modules focused on theindividual SDGs (with Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals cross-cutting throughout each module).
Each module includes indicators related to business best practices to contribute to the SDGs,featuring questions about the company’s business model, internal operations, supply chain,collective action, and negative impact risk. For each indicator, companies are able to set“improvement goals” to identify and track their improvements over time.

To learn more about the structure and methodology of the SDG Action Manager, see here.

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2

Key
Findings

SDG Engagement●

Companies are most likely to prioritize engagement with Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 8: Decent
Work and Economic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
The least engaged SDGs are Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 14: Life Below Water, and Goal
15: Life on Land.

●

Different prioritization trends exist across different regions. Goal 1: No Poverty has a greaterpriority from companies operating in the Global South, especially Latin America and Africa,
while Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth and Goal 12: Responsible Production andConsumption is more commonly prioritized in the Global North.

●Companies focused on an average of seven SDGs, and while generally speaking fewer
companies focused on more SDGs, there was an increase in companies who determined thatthey would take a completely comprehensive approach and prioritize nearly all SDGs.

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Key
Findings

SDG Performance●

All companies have an impact on the SDGs, good or bad, whether intentional or not.
Companies are performing best on Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 8:
Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption.
SDGs with the worst performance are Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal 6: Clean Water andSanitation, and Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. Similar to prioritization results,
regional variances in performance exist as well.

●Companies tend to perform best within their internal operations compared to supply chain,collective action, and business models, where performance is more challenging, but also
likely more impactful.

●

While the majority of companies indicate that they have minimal risk towards negatively
contributing to the SDGs, companies in the Arab States, Africa, and Asia / Paciﬁc havehigher levels of risk of negative impact compared to companies in Europe and the Americas,
while agriculture and manufacturing companies have the highest risks from a sectoral
perspective. Across SDGs, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic
Growth, Goal 13: Climate Action, and Goal 15: Life on Land, had the highest risk of negative
business impacts on them.

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Key
Findings

SDG Goal Setting and Improvement●

Priority SDGs do not necessarily have high rates of improvement goals being set, with Goal
1: No Poverty and Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being being among the most prioritized
SDGs, but with less improvement goals than the average across SDGs.

●

Of all improvement goals set, the highest frequency of improvements have been related toGoal 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.

●

A company that engages more deeply on measuring their performance on an SDG is more
likely to set improvement goals, lending some evidence to the mantra of “you manage what
you measure.” Furthermore, there is also a correlation between performing well on an SDG
and setting improvement goals, indicating that those perhaps with the greatest need andopportunity for improvement (low performers), are less likely to focus on improvementcompared to those who are already performing well.

●

Like performance, improvement goals are more commonly set within a company’s internal
operations, rather than business model, supply chain, or collective action.

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Key
Findings

Conclusions●

On the whole, the analysis broadly correlates to previous reports about company
engagement with the SDGs, which indicates that despite a lot of talk around engagement,
the action and performance is not strategic or bold enough to achieve the SDGs. Individualcompany efforts need to go beyond marketing and reporting related to the SDGs, to actualchange. That change needs to occur not just in the easiest and simplest of places, likely
within their own internal operations, but in the most strategic and impactful of places,
including their value chains and their business models. They need to lend their voice,authority, and resources on meaningful collaboration and collective action to have impacts
beyond their own company.

●

In order to shift this, it is necessary to take a systemic approach to change both withinorganizations and within the broader economic system, towards stakeholder governancerather than shareholder primacy that enables the bolder necessary action to achieve theSDGs.

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3

SDG
Engagement

In addition to the many reports about whether companies are interested in supporting the
Sustainable Development Goals in general, there is also much interest around how companies end
up engaging with them, including what speciﬁc SDGs companies tend to prioritize. Do companies
take a holistic approach, tackling all 17 of the SDGs together and equally, or do they prioritize
speciﬁc SDGs? If they prioritize speciﬁc SDGs, how many do they tend to prioritize, and on what
basis?

Based on the data set provided by users of the SDG Action Manager, after completing the Baseline
module companies are most likely to prioritize Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 8: Decent Work andEconomic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, while the least engaged
SDGs are Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 14: Life Below Water, and Goal 15: Life on Land. The fulllist of prioritized SDGs is below.

Prioritized SDGs ⁶

⁶ Only includes data from companies that have completed the Baseline module in the SDG Action Manager.

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SDG
Engagement

There is both alignment and divergence between this data set and other reports regarding what
SDGs companies are prioritizing. According to both the UN Global Compact and the World BusinessCouncil for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the SDGs that are most highly prioritized bybusinesses are Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and
Production, and Goal 13: Climate Action (with UN Global Compact Results also indicating Goal 3:
Good Health and Well-being as a common priority).⁷ Among those least prioritized, according to
the WBCSD, are Goal 15: Life on Land, Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 16:
Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, and Goal 14: Life Below Water.⁸
Across the broader subset of companies used in this analysis compared to other analyses, Goal 8:
Decent Work and Economic Growth and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production remainprioritized, while Goal 13: Climate Action appears less of a broader priority, perhaps because
smaller businesses tend to ﬁnd their climate impacts immaterial. Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal
15: Life on Land, and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions remain similarly deprioritized,
while interestingly Goal 1: No Poverty appears as top priority compared to other reports. While
there may be many explanations for such a stark discrepancy, one possibility is that a broader
subsection of businesses (including more small to mid-sized enterprises in this analysis comparedto others), as well as those not responding to a speciﬁc public survey, are less strategic in theirplanning of SDG impact management, as evidenced by potentially taking a “numeric order”
approach to SDG prioritization and beginning with the ﬁrst one.

⁷ UN Global Compact 20th-Anniversary Progress Report: Uniting Business in the Decade of Action
⁸ Business and the SDGs: A survey of WBCSD members and Global Network partners.

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SDG
Engagement

At the same time, the SDG Action Manager provides recommendations of material SDGs toprioritize based on a company’s industry, guided by research conducted by the World
Benchmarking Alliance linking SDGs to industries. Companies, generally speaking, have based theirprioritization on recommended relevant SDGs. This indicates that — based on the overall
prioritization of companies in the dataset, as well as the discrepancies between the “most urgent”
SDGs — there is a need not only for more relevant prioritization among individual companies, butalso the need to ensure engagement from companies in industries that are most relevant to themost urgent SDGs, where engagement might be lacking (and there might be less incentivization topositively engage). Companies need to be engaging in the right SDGs, but more broadly, the rightcompanies need to be engaging as well.
Call Out: Regional Priorities and Variation
Different priorities exist across different regions globally. For example, companies operating in the Global
South, especially Latin America and Africa, prioritize Goal 1: No Poverty, while Goal 8: Decent Work andEconomic Growth and Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption appear more common in the
Global North. Regional differences can be compared to WBCSD reported regional priorities:

Regional variations in SDG
prioritization ⁹

⁹ Business and the SDGs: A survey of WBCSD members and Global Network partners.

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SDG
Engagement

Percent of Companies Prioritizing the SDG ¹⁰

The SDGs by design are interconnected and holistic, and there is a general question around whether
individual SDGs can in fact be prioritized independent of others, as well as whether it is possible toidentify or rank SDGs by “urgency” or “importance.” At the same time, as highlighted above, some SDGs
are certainly more relevant to the operations of certain types of businesses compared to others. As aresult, it is important for businesses to balance the interconnected and holistic nature of the SDGs
(breadth), with the need to focus and prioritize where it makes most sense (depth). Businesses should
balance a comprehensive approach to the SDGs with speciﬁc focus on those SDGs of most relevance andimportance.
¹⁰ Percent of companies by region that have completed all of the questions in an SDG module in the
SDG Action Manager given that the company has already completed the Baseline module.

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SDG
Engagement

According to the WBCSD, 29% of businesses prioritize less than ﬁve SDGs, 58% between ﬁve andten, and only 13% more than ten.¹¹ These indications vary slightly from our analysis on the practicalresults of what companies are actually managing; in the SDG Action Manager data set, a majority ofcompanies are focused on one to four SDGs, with companies prioritizing on average six SDGs, andwhile there is a trending decrease in engagement of more and more SDGs on the whole, there is also
an increase at the tail end, representing companies who determined that they would take acompletely comprehensive approach and engage with nearly all of them.

Number of SDGs Prioritised ¹²¹¹ Business and the SDGs: A survey of WBCSD members and Global Network partners.
¹² Only includes data from companies that have completed the Baseline module of the SDG Action Manager.

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SDG
Engagement

Summary●

Companies are most likely to prioritize engagement with Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 8: Decent
Work and Economic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. The
least engaged SDGs are Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 14: Life Below Water, and Goal 15:
Life on Land.

●

Different prioritization trends exist across different regions. Goal 1: No Poverty, has agreater priority from companies operating in the Global South, especially Latin America andAfrica, while Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth and Goal 12: Responsible
Production and Consumption is more commonly prioritized in the Global North.

Companies focused on an average of seven SDGs, and while generally speaking fewer companies
focused on more SDGs, there was an increase in companies who determined that they would take acompletely comprehensive approach and prioritize nearly all SDGs.

For Further Exploration:●

What are the main drivers of differences between prioritization of SDGs across regions? How
would this vary at the country level?

●

What types of companies are most likely to take a comprehensive approach to all SDGs, and why?

●

How does the number of SDGs a company prioritizes correlate to performance on those SDGs? Do
companies who focus on fewer SDGs perform better on those SDGs?

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SDG
Performance

One of the unique beneﬁts of the SDG Action Manager data set is the ability to directly analyze
speciﬁc aspects of how company practices are contributing (or not contributing) to the SDGs. The
SDG Action Manager consists of sets of questions related to best practices and outputs relevant toeach Sustainable Development Goal, along with a scoring methodology that evaluates theirperformance. Each SDG module is broken into subsections aligned with the different aspects of abusiness that can be used to contribute to the SDGs, including a company’s business model,internal operations, supply chain, and collective action. There is also a unique subsection for each
SDG used to analyze the potential risks of negative impacts and how the company is managing
them.
While performance may vary greatly across SDGs and across companies, a relatively simple but
important truth emerges: all companies have an impact on the SDGs, and all companies are alreadycontributing to the SDGs in some form. This is true both with regards to positive impacts on the
SDGs (e.g. job creation and other mechanisms), but can also be equally true for negative impacts(e.g. waste production). As a result, distinguishing factors are really about how much contributions(positive and negative) are being made, and how businesses can manage and optimize those
impacts. Different companies will have different baselines and opportunities to do so, based on
many factors, including size, sector, and region.
According to the analyzed data set, companies are performing best on Goal 4: Quality Education,
Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible
Production and Consumption. SDGs with the worst performance are Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal
6: Clean Water and Sanitation, and Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy.

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SDG
Performance

Average Performance Per SDG ¹³¹³ The average percent of points earned within each SDG and the subcategories within each SDG (business model, collective action, internal
operations, and supply chain). Only includes data from companies that completed the Baseline module and 90% of the speciﬁc SDG Action
Manager modules.

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SDG
Performance

When examined with a regional lens, more variety exists. Companies in Africa tend to outperform
other regions across most SDGs. In North America, the top performing SDG is Goal 4: Quality
Education, while low performing SDGs are Goal 2: Zero Hunger, Goal 6: Clean Water andSanitation, and Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. The latter is possibly the result of the nature of
the underlying targets of each of those SDGs, which are arguably more relevant in the Global South.
European companies perform best on Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Goal 8: Decent Workand Economic Growth, while it lags behind on Goal 2: Zero Hunger, Goal 6: Clean Water andSanitation, and Goal 14: Life Below Water. Latin American companies excel in Goal 1: No Poverty,
while also lagging in Goal 14: Life Below Water. Asia & Paciﬁc companies excel in Goal 4: Quality
Education and Goal 1: No Poverty, while lagging in Goal 2: Zero Hunger. Companies in the ArabStates excel in Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, while lagging in Goal 4: Quality
Education.

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SDG
Performance

Overall SDG Performance by Region (% of Points Earned) ¹⁴¹⁴ The average percent of points earned in each SDG, broken down by region, and only including data from companies that completed the Baseline
module and 90% of the speciﬁc SDG modules. The Company Region pie chart on page 8 can be referenced for sample sizes.

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SDG
Performance

Perhaps most interesting is the results of SDG performance broken down by the different aspectsof a business, their business model, internal operations, supply chain, and collective action. Many
previous reports highlight where businesses have prioritized their efforts, as well as where thegreatest opportunity for impact and improvement lie. For example, according to WBCSD, 58% of
surveyed companies focused on direct operations, while only 37% were including their value chain
impacts.¹⁵ According to the UN Global Compact, only 46% are embedding the SDGs into their corebusiness, 37% are designing business models that contribute to the SDGs, 35% publicly advocate
the importance of action on the SDGs, and 52% are engaging in partnership projects with public or
private organizations.¹⁶
Largely, these results are aligned with actual levels of performance; in the SDG Action Manager
data set, internal operations tends to be where companies perform best compared to supply chain,collective action, and business models. While these latter aspects are more difficult to manage andshift because of the signiﬁcance of the change required as well as the time, resources andcollaboration needed to do so, they nonetheless represent signiﬁcant opportunities for
improvement and are the areas most likely to drive the acceleration and transformation needed toactually achieve the SDGs at a systemic level.

Average Performance Broken Down by Aspect of the Business ¹⁷¹⁵ Business and the SDGs: A survey of WBCSD members and Global Network partners.
¹⁶ Uniting Business in the Decade of Action.
¹⁷ Of companies that have completed the Baseline module and one additional SDG Action Manager module.

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SDG
Performance

Companies that perform well on:

Tend to perform well on:

Could Improve on:

Baseline

Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong
Institutions

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities andCommunities

Goal 1: No Poverty

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 1: No Poverty

Goal 13: Climate Action

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 4: Quality Education

Goal 4: Quality Education

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 5: Gender Equality

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Goal 13: Climate Action

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

SDG 15: Life On Land

SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean
EnergyGoal 13: Climate Action

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic
GrowthGoal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation andInfrastructure

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Goal 1: No Poverty

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities andCommunities

Goal 13: Climate Action

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption
and Production

Goal 15: Life On Land

Goal 5: Gender Equality

Goal 13: Climate Action

Goal 15: Life On Land

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 14: Life Below Water

Goal 15: Life On Land

Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being

Goal 15: Life On Land

Goal 14: Life Below Water

Goal 5: Gender Equality

Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong
Institutions

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

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SDG
Performance

Regarding the holistic and interconnected nature of the SDGs, it is also possible to identify
connections and potential tradeoffs between performance across SDGs. While some results seem toindicate a correlation between certain social impact-focused SDGs to the detriment ofenvironmentally-focused SDGs (i.e. Zero Hunger positively correlated to No Poverty, with Climate
Action lagging), it is not possible to identify clearer broader trends across socially versus
environmentally focused SDGs.
Because of the unique and complex nature of assessing potential negative impacts on an SDG, aswell as to avoid the implication that positive contributions can effectively outweigh negative
impacts, a company’s “risk level” is evaluated differently from other sections. Rather than anumeric score, companies receive a color coded “ﬂag rating” of green, yellow, orange, or red,
indicating the level of risk that the company has material negative impacts on the SDG.
Generally speaking, the majority of companies indicate that they have minimal risk of negatively
contributing to the SDGs. This is likely the result of a combination of factors, including thecomposition of companies in the sample (which includes many small and service oriented
businesses), as well as the likelihood that businesses are self-assessing their positive impacts on
the SDGs more accurately than their negative impacts. According to WBCSD, 69% of companies
have taken steps to identify their positive impacts on the SDGs, whereas only 37% have taken
action to identify potential negative impacts¹⁸.

¹⁸ Business and the SDGs: A survey of WBCSD members and Global Network partners.

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SDG
Performance

Nonetheless, there is also variability in the level of risk associated with companies of different
sectors and regions, as well as across different SDGs. Companies in the Arab States, Africa, and Asia
/ Paciﬁc have higher levels of risk of negative impact compared to companies in Europe and theAmericas, while agriculture and manufacturing companies have the highest risks from a sectoral
perspective. Across SDGs, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth,
Goal 13: Climate Action, and Goal 15: Life on Land had the highest risk of negative business impacts
on them.

Risk Level by Region and Sector ¹⁹¹⁹ Only includes data from completed “Risk Level” subsections for each SDG. Companies receive a “ﬂag rating” based on their responses
indicating the level of risk that the company has material negative impacts on the SDG.

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SDG
Performance

Risk Level by SDG ²⁰²⁰ Only includes data from completed “Risk Level” subsections for each SDG. Companies receive a “ﬂag rating” based on their responses
indicating the level of risk that the company has material negative impacts on the SDG.

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SDG
Performance

Summary●

All companies have an impact on the SDGs, good or bad, whether intentional or not.
Companies are performing best on Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 8:
Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption.
SDGs with the worst performance are Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal 6: Clean Water andSanitation, and Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. Similar to prioritization results,
regional variances in performance exist as well.

●Companies tend to perform best within their internal operations compared to supply chain,collective action, and business models, where performance is more challenging, but also
likely more impactful.

●

While the majority of companies indicate that they have minimal risk towards negatively
contributing to the SDGs, companies in the Arab States, Africa, and Asia / Paciﬁc havehigher levels of risk of negative impact compared to companies in Europe and the Americas,
while agriculture and manufacturing companies have the highest risks from a sectoral
perspective. Across SDGs, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic
Growth, Goal 13: Climate Action, and Goal 15: Life on Land, had the highest risk of negative
business impacts on them.

For Further Exploration:●

What are the drivers of different regional trends in performance on speciﬁc SDGs?

●

What percentage of companies are leading on incorporation of an SDG into their business model,
supply chain, or collective action efforts? What are the drivers that lead a company to do so?

●

Where there are positive or negative correlations identiﬁed on performance between SDGs, whatmight be the causes of these correlations?

●

What are the drivers of different risk levels across sectors and regions, and how does risk level
correlate with positive performance?

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5

SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Ultimately, while all businesses are currently having some impact, positive or negative, on the
Sustainable Development Goals, it is necessary for companies to make improvements over time inorder to achieve them. The performance analysis above highlights that all companies, even leadersin respective SDGs, have room for improvement. The more companies make sizable improvements,
the more likely achievement of the SDGs will be possible.
According to the WBCSD, only 6% of surveyed companies in 2018 had set new SDG related
improvement targets²¹ and according to PwC’s 2019 analysis, only 14% of companies (157
companies) mentioned speciﬁc SDG improvement targets.²² The SDG Action Manager allows
companies to set and track improvement goals on the various indicators, allowing for a practicalanalysis of how many companies are intentionally setting improvement goals, and where thosegoals tend to be focused.
Among companies that have completed at least one SDG module (in addition to the Baseline),
19.8% of them have set an improvement goal. On average, those companies set 10.8 goals across 5
modules.

While a focus on improvement generally correlates with SDGs that have been prioritized, there aresome divergences, indicating that some SDGs may actually be less “improvement friendly” thanothers. For example, companies are very likely to prioritize Goal 1: No Poverty and Goal 3: Good
Health and Well-Being, but those that do prioritize these Goals set less improvement goals than the
average across SDGs. Of all improvement goals set, the highest number of improvements have been
related to Goal 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, which is partially, but not entirely, a
consequence of strong overlap in content between the Goal 16 module and the Baseline module.

²¹ Business and the SDGs: A survey of WBCSD members and Global Network partners.
²² PwC SDG Challenge 2019.

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5SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Total Goals + Average # of Goals per Company ²³²³ Data for “Total Goals” includes all companies that have answered at least one question in the SDG Action Manager. Data for “Average Goals per
Company” only includes goals set by companies that have completed at least 90% of the corresponding SDG Action Manager module.

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5

SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Setting improvement goals are also moderately positively correlated with engagement andperformance as outlined in the following graphic. A company that engages more deeply on
measuring their performance on an SDG is more likely to set improvement goals. Furthermore,
there is also a correlation between performing well on an SDG and setting improvement goals. This
also has interesting implications, as it indicates that those perhaps with the greatest need andopportunity for improvement (low performers), are less likely to focus on improvement comparedto those who are already performing well. Thus, improvement might be associated with those whoare already in many ways leaders; while there is always the opportunity for even the best companies
to continue to improve, in order to achieve the SDGs all companies, especially those currently
performing poorly, will need to signiﬁcantly improve.²⁴²⁴ Only includes companies that have completed the Baseline module and one additional SDG Action Manager module.

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5

SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Correlation Between Engagement and Improvement

Correlation Between Performance and Improvement Goals Made

Correlation Between Performance and Improvements Made

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5

SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Similar to the results of existing performance favoring internal operations, compared to businessmodels, supply chain, and collective action, focus areas for improvement yield similar results.
Companies are signiﬁcantly more likely to both set and achieve goals for internal operations relatedcompared to other focus areas.

Improvements by Aspects of the Business²⁵²⁵ Only includes data from companies that have completed the Baseline module and another SDG Action Manager module.

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SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Goal Setting in SDGs²⁶

While businesses generally engaged with SDGs that were recommended to them based on theirindustry, they did not necessarily prioritize those SDGs for improvement. Eight SDGs have a higher
goal setting rate when the module is recommended, and eight have a higher rate when it is notrecommended.

²⁶ Only includes data from SDG Action Manager modules that are more than 90% complete.

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SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Average # Goals Set²⁷

Average % Completion²⁷

These last two results are relatively concerning signals. While companies prioritize measuring
SDGs that are deemed most material to their company, their goal setting appears to be lessstrategically focused. Combined with goals being primarily focused on internal operations, there isindication that companies are more inclined to focus on short-term, likely easier to implement,
improvement opportunities, rather than those that are most impactful and strategic.

²⁷ Includes data from all companies that have answered a question on the SDG Action Manager.

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5

SDG Goal Setting& Improvement

Summary●

The priority SDGs highlighted in Section 3 do not necessarily have high rates ofimprovement goals being set, with Goal 1: No Poverty and Goal 3: Good Health andWell-Being being among the most prioritized SDGs, but with less improvement goals than
the average across SDGs. Of all improvement goals set, the highest number have been
related to Goal 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.

●

A company that engages more deeply on measuring their performance on an SDG is more
likely to set improvement goals, lending some evidence to the mantra of “you manage what
you measure.” Furthermore, there is also a correlation between performing well on an SDG
and setting improvement goals, indicating that those perhaps with the greatest need andopportunity for improvement (low performers), are less likely to focus on improvementcompared to those who are already performing well.

●

Like performance, improvement goals are more commonly set within a company’s internal
operations, rather than business model, supply chain, or collective action.

For Further Exploration:●

What makes some SDGs more improvement friendly compared to others?

●

What types of companies align their targets with material SDGs, and what types of companies
don’t?

●

What are the drivers that lead to companies setting targets on more challenging but impactful
topics like business models, supply chain, and collective action? How can this be accelerated?

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6

SDG
Snapshots

This section provides a deeper analysis of two speciﬁc SDG modules, Goal 5: Gender Equality and
Goal 13: Climate Action, including identiﬁed best practices for businesses to contribute to each SDG,
engagement rankings compared to other SDGs, high and low performing industries, common
improvement practices, and correlations to other relevant external data sets.

SDG Action Manager Module for Goal 5: Gender Equality
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

The module for Goal 5 in the SDG Action Manager highlights key practices your business can taketo contribute to Gender Equality, such as increasing women’s representation in the workforce,
management and supply chain, managing gender discrimination complaints, offering
non-discrimination training, and providing equitable caregiver leave.²⁸
In addition to incorporating questions from B Lab’s B Impact Assessment, the questions in thismodule have been informed by The Women’s Empowerment Principles Gender Gap Analysis Tool,an analysis of Human Rights Impact Assessments, and An Analysis of the Goals and Targets by GRI
and the UN Global Compact. Learn more about this SDG and its speciﬁc targets and indicators here.

²⁸ Note that, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals as deﬁned by the United Nations, gender equality is narrowly deﬁned andfocused in a binary way.

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6

SDG
Snapshots

Best Practice Examples:
Business models●

Products/services provide education or educational/professional development initiatives
speciﬁcally for women or girls●

Products/services provide or support healthcare for women or girls●

Products/services are designed to meet speciﬁc needs of women or girls●

Products/services provide or enable women or girls to increase access to economic resourcesand opportunities including jobs, ﬁnancial services, property and other productive assets,skills development and market information (e.g. career placement services designed for
women, leadership networks, etc.)●

Workforce development programs that target and hire women from chronicallyunderemployed social groups and provides them career training opportunities

Internal operations●

Non-discrimination policies●% of women in workforce, management, directors, ownership●

Gender pay equality●

Caregiver leave

Supply chain●

Policies, screenings, and outcomes to remove gender discriminaton and harassment insuppliers●

Policies and programs in place to purchase from and support women owned businesses●

Percentage of diverse ownership of suppliersCollective action●

Policy advocacy for gender equality●

Collaboration and partnership for gender equality© B Lab 2021

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6

SDG
Snapshots

Engagement Rank Compared to Other SDGs:●

Overall: 5th●Asia & Paciﬁc: 5th●

North America: 5th●South/Latin America: 5th●

Europe: 4th●Africa: 5th●

Arab States: 2nd (tied)

Performance Ranking Compared to Other SDGs:●

Overall: 10th●

Asia & Paciﬁc: 7th●

North America: 12th●

South/Latin America: 9th●

Europe: 14th●

Africa:4th●

Arab States: 5th

Improvement Ranking Compared to Other SDGs:●© B Lab 2021

2nd average per company focused on the SDG; 5th total goals set

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SDG
Snapshots

Top Performing Industries:●

Education & training services●

Telecommunications●

Other education●

Beverages●

Design & building

Lowest Performing Industries:●

Software publishing and SaaS●

Engineering●

Agricultural processing●

Other retail sale●

Other manufacturing

Common Improvement Goals:●

Non-Discrimination policies●

Percentage of women workers●

Supplier ownership diversity●

Supplementary beneﬁts© B Lab 2021

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SDG
Snapshots

Interesting Correlation:It’s possible to analyze company performance on Goal 5: Gender Equality as it relates to external
data sources regarding other national indicators of gender equality, such as the proportion of
women in parliament and the proportion of women in managerial positions.
In the table “Average Goal 5 Score vs Country-Speciﬁc SDG Indicator Data,” countries
highlighted in blue perform the highest in either of these metrics in addition to having companies
that score an average of 50 and above on the SDG Action Manager module for Goal 5: Gender
Equality. Countries highlighted in red are the lowest performing in either metric with companies
scoring an average of less than 50 on the module. These relationships could mean that the locationof these companies may inﬂuence the company’s ability to perform in this SDG.
Countries highlighted in purple contain companies performing well on the Goal 5 module despite
their country performing poorly in either their proportion of women in parliament and/or their
proportion of women in managerial positions. These companies therefore may be pushing theboundaries or attempting to positively change the status quo of their country.
The vast majority of companies are highlighted in white, and are low-scoring companies on theGoal 5 module despite their country performing well on either their proportion of women inparliament and/or their proportion of women in managerial positions. Companies located in thesecountries may not ﬁnd it necessary to advance gender equality issues since their country appears tobe performing well on gender-related issues overall. These countries may perform worse in the
coming years if more action is not taken.

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SDG
Snapshots

Average SDG 5 Score vs Country-Speciﬁc SDG Indicator Data ²⁹²⁹ Graphic includes scores of companies in a country with at least 5 companies that have completed 90% of Goal 5: Gender Equality. Sources of
SDG Indicator data are from UN Stats Open SDG Data Hub. Indicators used were SDG Indicator Data 16.7.1: Ratio for women in parliament andIndicator 5.5.2: Proportion of women in managerial positions.

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6

SDG
Snapshots

SDG Action Manager Module for Goal 13: Climate Action
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

The module for Goal 13 in the SDG Action Manager highlights key practices businesses can take tocontribute to climate action, including employing climate risk assessments, adopting climatechange governance, taking inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in internal operations andsupply chain, and setting science-based targets.
In addition to incorporating questions from the B Impact Assessment, questions in this module
have been informed by the CDP Climate Change 2019 Questionnaire, resources by the Asset Owners
Disclosure Project, Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures,
How to Declare a Climate Emergency by B Lab United Kingdom, and An Analysis of the Goals andTargets by GRI and UNGC.
Learn more about this SDG and its speciﬁc targets and indicators here.

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6

SDG
Snapshots

Best Practice Examples:
Business Models●

Products/services provide or facilitate the provision of cleaner fossil fuel based energy (e.g.
liquiﬁed petroleum gas)●

Products/services provide or facilitate the provision of low impact renewable energy (e.g.
solar panel microgrids, battery storage for decentralized renewable energy, etc.)●

Products/services provide technology solutions for mitigation of greenhouse gases (e.g.
energy efficient appliances, energy audit services, clean transportation for delivery of
goods, etc.)●

Products/services help improve climate adaptive capacity (e.g. early warning systems,
stormwater management solutions, etc.)●

Products/services enable propagation, protection or rehabilitation of forests, mangroves
and other habitats that help in climate mitigation and adaptation●

Products/services provide carbon capture and storage/usage solutions●

Financing focused on climate mitigation and adaptation (e.g. climate catastrophe index
based risk insurance, green infrastructure bonds, etc.)●

Financing services focused on climate mitigation and adaptation activities in least
developed countries and emerging markets

Internal Operations:●

Climate risk assessments●

Reducing impact of travel/commuting●

Renewable energy use●

Science-based targets●

Managing scope 3 emissions

Supply Chain:●

Screening and auditing suppliers GHG performance●

Support and incentives for suppliers to reduce GHGs

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6

SDG
Snapshots

Collective Action:●

Policy advocacy for climate action●

Collaboration and partnership for climate action

Engagement Rank Compared to Other SDGs:●

Overall: 7th●

Asia & Paciﬁc: 3rd●

North America: 7th●South/Latin America: 10th●

Europe: 5th●

Africa: 7th (tied)●

Arab States: 2nd (tied)

Performance Ranking Compared to Other SDGs:●

Overall: 9th●

Asia & Paciﬁc: 4th●

North America: 8th●South/Latin America: 12th●

Europe: 8th●Africa: 16th●

Arab States: 13th

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SDG
Snapshots

Improvement Rank Compared to Other SDGs:●

5th average per company focused on the SDG; 4th total goals set

Top Performing Industries:●

Environmental consulting●

Beverages●

Other renewable energy installations●

Food products●

Construction

Lowest Performing Industries:●

Software publishing and SaaS platforms●

Other info service activities●

Other manufacturing●

Engineering●

Other professional, scientiﬁc, and techCommon Improvement Goals:●

Monitoring greenhouse gas emissions●

Monitoring energy use●

Reducing impact of travel / commuting●

Low impact renewable energy use●

Climate mitigation and adaptation in operations© B Lab 2021

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SDG
Snapshots

Interesting Correlation:It’s possible to analyze company climate performance by country in association with the qualityof a country’s national climate action plans. “The Climate Action Tracker rates [National Climate
Plans], 2020 pledges, and long-term targets against whether they are consistent with a country’s‘fair share’ effort to the Paris Agreement 1.5°C temperature goal.”³⁰ Using the country’s Climate
Action Tracker (CAT) rating and company scores in the Goal 13 module of the SDG Action Manager,
we can determine if there is a correlation between a country’s CAT rating and business action
within those countries.
The only group of companies that are performing signiﬁcantly better than average are companies
based in countries that are 2°C compatible. For companies in the insufficient, highly insufficient,and critically insufficient CAT countries, there is no signiﬁcant difference between theirperformance on the Goal 13 module and the average score of 36.36. Given that this average overall
score puts Goal 13 in the 9th ranked position when compared to other SDGs, the roughly average
performance for companies across these three CAT categories indicates a need for improvement,
especially if these companies are to outperform their country’s already insufficient climate actionplans.

³⁰ Climate Action Tracker Rating System.

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SDG
Snapshots

When looking at the scores of all companies that completed this module, the average score out of
100 is 36.36, and even when examining groupings of CAT rated countries, countries in the highest
grouping - 2C compatible - have companies that are still only achieving an average of 53.10, whichleads to the conclusion that no grouping of companies, regardless of country plans, are themselves
performing sufficiently at Goal 13.

Average SDG 13 - Climate Action Score ³¹³¹ Graphic includes scores of companies in a country with at least ﬁve companies that have completed 90% of the Goal 13 module.
Countries without this data are shown in lighter gray. Countries who have data but do not have a CAT rating are shown in a darker grey.

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SDG
Snapshots

For Further Exploration:●

How does company performance on speciﬁc material SDGs vary by industry, and what are themajor drivers of performance variations?

●

How does business performance on climate Performance in a region relate to the direct effect thatclimate change is having on individuals in that region (i.e. how does current business performance
relate to important matters of climate justice?)●

How would business performance by region shift if a non-binary approach to gender equality
were included in the SDGs?

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7 Conclusions
There has been widespread recognition that even with the substantial energy and emphasis oncompanies contributing to the SDGs, that energy has either waned, been a lot of talk, or been
insufficient for other reasons. And now, through a year of upheaval in which nearly all of the
Sustainable Development Goals experienced regression, there is a growing urgency to get back on
track.
This report demonstrates that the same underlying issues remain, and exist across a wider
spectrum of companies. Companies are engaging with and making contributions to the SDGs, buton the whole, that engagement is not as strategic and transformative as it needs to be. According toan analysis by the UN Global Compact, many companies themselves recognize these insufficiencies,
with only 39% of companies saying they have targets they believe are sufficiently ambitious,
science-based and/or align with societal needs.³²
There are varied approaches to how to accelerate business progress on the SDGs. Among the
proposed solutions from business leaders are “an operating environment that incentivizes SDG
action,” “supportive public policy,” “enhancing demand from customers and consumers togenerate the right market signals for businesses to respond to,” “more engagement of the ﬁnanceindustry to incentivize and fund innovation and action,” and “reduce[d] complexity of initiatives.”
These recommendations ask that business “be recognized as an ‘equal partner’ at the table where
decisions are made and the voice of business to be echoed when setting the policy agenda” and an
important admission that “companies struggle to see a tangible link with business-as-usual.”³³³² Uniting Business in the Decade of Action.
³³ Uniting Business in the Decade of Action.

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7 Conclusions
On the other hand, when looking at broader, non-business community perspectives on the SDGs,
such as in the 2020 Sustainable Development Report, while there is a similar recognition of theurgency and risk that we won’t achieve the SDGs, the proposed solutions, however, emphasize theneed for systemic changes in order to accomplish them. The systemic changes take the form of six“transformations”: (1) education and skills, (2) health and wellbeing, (3) clean energy andindustry, (4) sustainable land use, (5) sustainable cities, and (6) digital technologies.³⁴ According
to the report, “to implement these transformations, in the medium- run, [the] relationshipbetween markets and governments must be rebalanced, with governments playing a more central
role in the economy through public investments, redistribution of incomes from rich to poor, andregulation of industry to ensure environmental and social sustainability.”
The differences in tone between the two are telling, and highlight the challenge to achieve theSDGs within the current “business as usual” system. The mainstream business community asks for
not only ease and simplicity in their sustainable development efforts, but also for external forces tomotivate them — government regulations, more funding and ﬁnancing to provide greater ﬁnancial
incentives, and more demand from customers. These requests, however, are themselves a limiting
factor — companies are looking for a link to “business as usual” but achieving the SDGs requires
anything but. If the private sector wants to be serious about progress towards the SDGs, thenbusinesses need to embrace systemic change, both in their own businesses and in the economic
system more broadly.
Systemic change means ensuring their efforts go beyond marketing and reporting related to theSDGs, to actual and signiﬁcant change in performance across their entire business, in line with thesocial and environmental systems that their business relies upon. Change needs to occur not just in
the easiest and simplest of places, but in the most strategic and impactful of places, including theirvalue chains and their actual business models. And they need to lend their voice, authority, andresources to meaningful collaboration and collective action to have impacts have beyond their own
company.
³⁴ Sustainable Development Report 2020.

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7 Conclusions
To do that, it also means shifting the fundamental purpose of business from shareholder primacy
to stakeholder governance, where businesses are not only taking on sustainability initiatives
insofar as they enhance their value to shareholders, but are actually required to take into
consideration impacts on stakeholders in their decision-making. Without such a change, business
contributions will remain incremental and driven only so far as the external forces like regulation,ﬁnancial incentives, and consumer demand will take them, with businesses as mere passengers(and sometimes unwilling ones). Such a change in the economic system can be thought of as aseventh “transformation” to achieve sustainable development, enabling each of the othertransformations highlighted above.
To share a ﬁnal data point from this analysis, and one with a bit of positivity, among the mostfrequent goals for improvement set across all SDGs is for a business to fundamentally shift theirown governance structure to require the consideration of stakeholders in their decision making, an
important indication of the emergence of stakeholder governance. But as has been emphasized
above, while individual companies adopting such governance models is incredibly powerful, it does
not necessarily signal a shift in the way the system operates on the whole. Businesses should
therefore embrace this change for themselves and support broader efforts for its adoption widely.
For that reason, there are critical ongoing initiatives to advocate for such change. Such initiatives
work to spark systemic change broadly across the corporate landscape, as in the case of a proposal
for a White House Initiative on Inclusive Economic Growth, the Better Business Act in the United
Kingdom, and the Interdependence Coalition in the European Union.
We are less than a decade away from 2030. Businesses need to lead, and leading requires taking
big, bold action on the SDGs, shifting their own purpose to require stakeholder consideration overtime (and thus enabling their ability to take such bold action), and working towards enabling suchactions across the entire business landscape. Other stakeholders of businesses, such as regulators,
consumers, and employees, should similarly work to enable the same underlying systemic changes
and push businesses to take the bold actions that will increase our chances of achieving the SDGs.

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7 Conclusions
Summary●

On the whole, the analysis broadly correlates to previous reports about company engagementwith the SDGs, which indicates that despite a lot of talk around engagement, the action andperformance is not strategic or bold enough to achieve the SDGs. Individual company efforts
need to go beyond marketing and reporting related to the SDGs, to actual change. That change
needs to occur not just in the easiest and simplest of places, likely within their own internal
operations, but in the most strategic and impactful of places, including their value chains andtheir business models. They need to lend their voice, authority, and resources on meaningful
collaboration and collective action to have impacts beyond their own company.

●

In order to shift this, it is necessary to take a systemic approach to change both withinorganizations and within the broader economic system, towards stakeholder governancerather than shareholder primacy that enables the bolder necessary action to achieve the SDGs.

Further Research:
In addition to further research and analysis conducted by B Lab in the future, data from the SDG
Action Manager has been made available to academic researchers through an RFP in 2019 titled, “TheRole of Business in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South.” B Lab received a
total of 46 proposals from 148 researchers located in 29 countries from this call, and four researchteams were chosen. Selected research is being developed on the following topics, with anticipatedconclusions in 2021:
1. Understanding the Role of Goal 16 and Peace for the Advancement of the 2030 SDG Business
Agenda2. Breadth and depth strategies of B Corps in pursuing the SDGs: Learning from north and south
3. Assessing gender (in)equality in businesses: lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean
4. Business, the SDGs, and Covid-19 in Africa: How are companies responding to different objectives,
timeframes, and contexts?

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8 About B Lab
B Lab is transforming the global economy to beneﬁt all people, communities, and the planet.
A leader in economic systems change, our global network creates standards, policies, tools, andprograms for business, and we certify companies—known as B Corps—who are leading the way. To
date, our community includes 280,000 workers in over 4,000 B Corps across 77 countries and 153
industries, and more than 150,000 companies manage their impact with the B Impact Assessment
and the SDG Action Manager. To learn more and join the movement, visit www.bcorporation.net.

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Thank you

For questions regarding this document andresearch enquiries, please contact
insights@bcorporation.net
For all media inquiries, please contactpress@bcorporation.net
Create a free account for the SDG Action Manager to set goals, trackprogress, and stay motivated on your actions toward the SDGs.
https://bcorporation.net/welcome-sdg-action-manager