The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has launched its official guidelines, developed with ERM, for the development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Sector Roadmaps.

The guidelines will assist leading companies to articulate a common vision for how their industry can implement SDGs to optimize business value, not only to individual companies but also to entire markets. 

Created by the United Nations in 2015, the SDGs comprise 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development and 169 actionable targets to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. As corporate responsibility and climate related risk have an increasingly more direct impact on a company’s financial standing and reputation, aligning core business strategies with the SDGs has the potential to offer an organization new market opportunities and to help retain or regain license to operate. However, achieving and maximizing the potential of the SDGs is out of the scope of a single company.

The Business and Sustainable Development Commission report Better Business Better World makes a compelling case for companies to collaborate with sector peers to create a common vision and develop detailed 'roadmaps' to guide this shift to sustainable development within an industry. The SDG Sector Roadmap Guidelines, published by WBCSD, will help leading companies articulate a common vision for how industry can implement SDGs to optimize business value, not only to individual companies but also to entire markets.

ERM led the development of the WBCSD’s SDG Sector Roadmap Guidelines through extensive technical and strategic input from sustainability and technical experts with global cross-sector experience in tackling SDG issues. ERM also led a pilot with a coalition of leading WBCSD member companies and industry associations from the chemical sector who have been early pioneers of the methodology.

These guidelines provide a three-step framework to developing the roadmap in a systematic and replicable way that leads companies through a process of:

  1. Establishing their sector’s current level of interaction with the SDGs throughout the value chain;
  2. Identifying the sector’s most significant opportunities for impact; and
  3. Establishing key action items and monitoring systems in order to chart a course towards the sector’s 2030 vision.

The document is designed to inspire sectors to develop their own roadmaps for identifying the common solutions, opportunities and partnerships needed to help achieve the SDGs. However, individual companies can also leverage the roadmap to focus their own strategic approach and make informed decisions as to where they can have the greatest impact on the SDG goals and targets that are a priority for their sector.

Learn more and download a copy of the guidelines from the WBCSD site