{"id":8677,"date":"2021-03-15T20:59:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T00:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialimpactmovement.org\/?p=8677"},"modified":"2022-06-06T04:50:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T08:50:40","slug":"make-your-sdgs-count-be-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialimpactmovement.org\/staging\/make-your-sdgs-count-be-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"Make your SDG\u2019s count. Be accountable."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Make Your SDG\u2019s Count. Be Accountable.<\/b><\/h1>

In terms of social impact, up until Covid, it was thought that big initiatives are often the ones that have the largest impact. With the pandemic, we realized how important the individual behavior and the collective power are.<\/span><\/p>

These days more than ever, companies are called to adopt and advance acting upon different types of social and environmental causes. Organizations pledge to sustainability goals and then figure out a way to monitor impact. Initially, these types of initiatives were developed to build image and influence public opinion. Today, the aim is to directly link them to long-term profitability, risk mitigation and strategic perspective. The word pledge has a clear meaning: a solemn promise or undertaking. It represents an agreement, a bond, an oath to commit to a given cause or purpose.<\/span><\/p>

But what does this mean for a company when it comes to deliver on it?<\/strong><\/h2>

In most cases, companies set goals, activities and projects that do not have a clear performance indicator or fail to establish a cause-effect relationship between social and environmental impact, and real economic effects. It is true that efforts in this direction are constantly made. But they fall short from proving or even linking, social and environmental impact to business outputs. Quite often, the evaluation is limited to costs savings (with more or less rigor) and a monetary allocation to risk mitigation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Let\u2019s take the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations in 2015 for instance. While they have been broadly adopted and pledged for, companies still struggle to realize them. The Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) is the UN Statistical Commission in charge of setting the Key Performance Indicators (KPI\u2019s) that define whether or how those goals are achieved. Consider SDG #15, for example: \u201cTo protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss\u201d. Several companies are committing to this goal, for which the UN has set the following KPI\u2019s:<\/span><\/p>