B Lab Partners with United Nations Global Compact to Develop Online Platform for SDG-Focused Impact Management
February 7, 2019
A new online platform under development this year will leverage the B Impact Assessment to allow companies around the globe to manage their impact through performance on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thanks to the generous support of our funding partners, and working closely with the United Nations Global Compact, B Lab will develop the tool this year so it’s ready for launch in 2020 to help companies chart their next decade of progress on the SDGs.
Through this publicly available online platform, businesses will be able to assess, compare, and improve their performance against the SDGs, delivering tangible progress on them by 2030. Companies will also be able to access online resources through the platform to improve their impact and benchmark against key indicators and peers. The online tool will feature select questions from the B Impact Assessment that have been mapped to the SDGs, supplemented by new performance measures based on the expertise of anchor partner the UN Global Compact and other advisors.
A special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the UN Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. Launched in 2000, the mandate of the UN Global Compact is to guide and support the global business community in advancing UN goals and values through responsible corporate practices.
B Lab has kicked off content development based on a mapping by the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder, of all B Impact Assessment indicators to the SDGs, underlying targets, and indicators featured in the SDG Compass. Businesses interested in doing their part to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, networks interested in driving collective business action toward these Global Goals, or organizations with expertise in one or more of the SDGs are encouraged to serve as an advisor, contributor or beta tester during this year’s development process. Advisors will be selected by invitation only.
Want to test this platform? Fill out this survey now!
In addition to driving business action with the online SDG platform, this initiative will help academics study how businesses can change their behavior to work toward the SDGs. Working closely with B Lab, Academia B - a Sistema B initiative - will launch a request for research proposals from the Global South at the end of 2019. Selected researchers will leverage a research-ready and anonymized dataset on business social, environmental, and SDG performance. With support from the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, this dataset will be made available in 2020 through Wharton Research Data Services at the University of Pennsylvania.
This work is possible thanks to partners that have joined forces to drive meaningful business action for the Sustainable Development Goals. Donors supporting this work include Emmanuel Faber, Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and the Generation Foundation.