United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 22 June 2016 rallied corporate leaders and entrepreneurs gathered for a summit in New York to focus on key areas required to reach a new era of sustainability, including responsible practices, transformative partnerships, breakthrough innovation and targeted investment.

In his remarks to the 2016 UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, Mr. Ban stressed that achieving the aims of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development would require finding new ways of living that would end the suffering, discrimination and lack of opportunity for billions of people around the world.

As such, he called on all stakeholders – from world leaders and chief executives, to educators and philanthropists, and across all sectors and industries – to work together in broader and deeper partnerships.

The UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, supports companies to do business responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations with Ten Principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption; and to take strategic actions to advance broader societal goals, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation.

The Leaders Summit, which is running in New York through tomorrow, aims to jump-start business action everywhere on the Goals. To that end, the Global Compact unveiled a multi-year strategy to drive business awareness and activity that supports the achievement of the Goals by 2030.

Key elements of the new ‘Making Global Goals Local Business’ strategy include an annual Leaders Summit, the SDG Pioneers programme, Local Network SDG Action Plans, UN-business partnerships, and impact reporting.

Recalling the adoption last year of both the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Secretary-General in his remarks said sustainable development could be separated from fighting the impacts of climate change, and called for a holistic development model will take climate impact and fragile ecosystems into account, and would benefit both people and the planet.

Noting that trillions of dollars will be invested in infrastructure in the coming years, he said that the Paris Agreement and the SDGs give the private sector an unprecedented opportunity to create clean-energy, climate-resilient, sustainable economies.

“We are at a decisive moment in the shift to sustainable and inclusive markets,” continued the Secretary-General, noting that the first step in this regard would be to mobilize the global business community as never before. “All businesses, everywhere, can and should play a role in improving our world. That starts with integrity – doing business right,” he said.

“I have seen first-hand the power of the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles […] They are helping thousands of companies contribute to sustainability,” he said asking each of the corporate leaders and entrepreneurs participating in the Summit to renew commitment to principled business, “and to speak up for the UN Global Compact.”

Next, he said innovation will be crucial. “I urge you to take advantage of the new markets and solutions that are emerging; to set corporate goals inspired by the SDGs; and to let sustainability drive innovation and investment,” he stressed.

“The UN Global Compact is uniquely prepared and positioned to lead business in the SDG era,” said Mr. Ban. “Achieving the SDGs will require unprecedented cooperation, radical innovation and extraordinary leadership. And it will require us each to be a pioneer, forging ahead into new territory.”

That would mean, the UN chief continued, “taking personal and corporate responsibility for how we do business and who we choose as our staff and partners. It means taking stock of our decisions as consumers and investors. It means raising our voices and taking a stand when it matters. The United Nations Global Compact is the forum to make all this happen.”

In her remarks, Lise Kingo, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact said: “The Leaders Summit is the first step on a long-term journey to engage business on the 2030 Agenda. The expectations on business in the new SDG era are immense, but at the same time the opportunities are enormous.”

“We need to invent, develop and launch countless new ideas and solutions within a very short time. Through our Making Global Goals Local Business strategy, we will build a powerful global movement of companies doing business responsibly and innovating around the SDGs to create the world we want,” she stressed.

Noting that the Global Compact’s Ten Principles are “simply good business,” she explained that the principles provide a common ground for partners, a moral code for employees, an accountability measure, and ultimately are the foundation for building trust across the board.

Underscoring the value of the SDGs for businesses, she said that addressing challenges ranging from inequality and conflict, to unemployment and climate change, the global goals reflect the complex, interconnected operating environments that businesses face around the world.

The Global Compact Executive Director also added that SDGs not only identify where the global community has to be in 2030 to create a sustainable world in which nobody is left behind, they also outline new markets and opportunities for companies all over the world.

To succeed, she said “we must turn the global goals into business action and impacts in markets around the world.”

“There is no doubt that this is a daunting agenda. At the same time, the opportunities at hand are enormous. Global challenges – whether related to food and water crises, or conflict and inequality – are in need of solutions from all sectors, including business,” she added.

In an impassioned plea at the Summit, she called on all to “seize the day and work together” to achieve the SDGs by turning risks into opportunities, and creating the world we want. “There is so much we can accomplish together – and we have only just begun. And there is no Plan B,” she said.

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Business leaders endorse Sustainable Development Goals as framework for shaping corporate strategies

On 23 June 2016 at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2016, more than 600 business leaders from 75 countries joined leaders from civil society, the UN and Government to advance private sector actions for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Opened on Wednesday at United Nations Headquarters by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the second day of the Summit focused on how companies can transform their business models to responsibly meet the needs of society, tap into new markets and achieve success.

“To meet the SDGs by 2030, the time to act is now. Many companies are already starting to look through the SDG lens – imagining how their operations, products and services can support the realities of our planet and better serve markets both today and in the future,” stated Lise Kingo, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. “It is so encouraging that a growing number of CEOs already recognize that the SDGs offer a roadmap for business to rethink approaches to sustainable value creation – but the challenge now is scaling up this movement to include companies everywhere.”

To help participants see the potential of transforming risks into opportunities, the Summit featured Opportunity Sessions on key topics: changing lifestyles to promote sustainability, addressing climate change, building peace through responsible business, financing sustainable solutions and business models, ending poverty to create new markets, and translating global goals into local business action. In these interactive sessions business leaders advanced ideas on how to address global challenges, with UN, Government and civil society offering thought-provoking responses. 

“As we journey to 2030, the SDGs will take on even greater meaning as the vehicle to achieve the objectives of the UN Charter, our founding document,” said UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson. “The SDGs create huge market opportunities everywhere and allow companies to do well by doing good. The optimism and entrepreneurship of the private sector must be a driving force.”

The two-day Summit, the first official business forum since the launch of the SDGs, is part of a UN Global Compact multi-year strategy – Making Global Goals Local Business – to drive business awareness and activity that supports the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. In total, more than 1,200 participants from business, finance, civil society, labour, academia, the UN and Government attended the Summit.

Throughout the day, a number of speakers from business shared stories of how their companies have made significant steps to advance sustainable development priorities, including on energy, climate, waste, water, healthcare and poverty, which can translate into increased actions in the SDG era. Additionally, poet Sarah Kay and author Simon Sinek inspired the audience to become agents of change and play their part to create the world we want.

Plenary speakers included: Bola Adesola, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria; Marie-Ange Debon, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Suez; Deb Frodl, Global Executive Director, ecomagination at GE; Chang-Gyu Hwang, Chief Executive Officer, KT Corporation; Peter Lacy, Global Managing Director for Sustainability Services, Accenture Strategy; and Jyrki Raina, General Secretary, IndustriALL Union.

During the Leaders Summit a number of announcements were made, including:

• 2016 CEO Study: The UN Global Compact and Accenture Strategy announced the results of the 2016 CEO Study, finding that 87% of CEOs in the UN Global Compact believe that the SDGs represent an essential opportunity to rethink approaches to sustainability, and nearly half say businesses will be the most important actor in their delivery. The CEO Study was conducted with more than 1,000 UN Global Compact participant CEOs in 108 countries across 26 industries. 

• Local SDG Pioneers: To inspire business women and men around the world, yesterday the UN Global Compact announced ten Local SDG Pioneers. Selected from more than 600 nominees in 100 countries, the Pioneers programme shines a spotlight on entrepreneurs and changemakers who are demonstrating how business can unlock economic, social and environmental gains in their markets for the new SDG era. 

• Local SDG Network Plans: As part of the Making Global Goals Local Business strategy, the UN Global Compact announced today that it was equipping its Local Networks in 80 counties to carry out SDG implementation strategies, including: promoting the SDGs in their countries, convening multi-stakeholder dialogues, inspiring new partnerships and contributing to national plans. The UN Global Compact has provided toolkits to its Local Networks ranging from basic awareness raising to advanced multi-year strategy planning, especially focused on partnerships and engaging in National SDG Action Plans.

• Breakthrough Innovation Challenge: To drive radical innovation that advance the SDGs, the UN Global Compact on 23 June announced a challenge for young innovators within leading companies to design future business models enabled by disruptive technology. The programme is a partnership between Global Compact LEAD, The DO School and Volans.

• SDG Advocate Letter to CEOs: On 22 June in remarks at the Summit, SDG Advocate and Founder of The Voice of Libyan Women, Alaa Murabit, announced that a letter to all Fortune 500 CEOs has been sent urging them to commit to doing business responsibly and aligning with the SDGs. Commitments will be shared in September around the UN General Assembly opening week.

• SDG Industry Matrix Series: The UN Global Compact and KPMG announced two new editions to the SDG Industry Matrix series focusing on Healthcare & Life Sciences and Industrial Manufacturing. These build on existing matrices for Financial Services and Food, Beverage and Consumer Goods.

Following the Summit, the next milestone in the Making Global Goals Local Business strategy will be the UN Private Sector Forum on 19 September at UN Headquarters in New York, bringing together Heads of State and Government with chief executives and civil society leaders to explore the role of business in addressing conflicts and instability.