The United Nations Global Compact that leads and guides business sustainability

Twenty-one years have passed since then-UN Secretary Kofi Annan founded the United Nations Global Compact with a clear objective: guide and inspire companies around the world to develop thriving businesses based on universal principles that serve to meet the challenges of humanity.

With this milestone, for the first time companies were awarded a relevant role in sustainable development. They were presented as part of the solution. Because there is no doubt that, if these are the engine of economic development, they are also part of the gear of sustainable development.

Since then, what began as a bold vision together with 44 pioneering companies has grown to be the world’s largest initiative in business sustainability.

With more than 14,000 companies based in 160 countries, we have grown into a global movement of companies and stakeholders united to create the world we want. A movement that has the Spanish Network as one of the benchmarks in local action, being the largest in the world in number of adhered entities.

These good figures also say a lot about the high involvement and commitment of the Spanish business sector with our ten principles, and with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Both are beacons that guide our work and that lay the foundations to lead the greatest transformation of the economic model towards a new normal.

In fact, according to the comprehensive process of consultation with the business sector of our country -which we carried out for the Government of Spain on the occasion of the elaboration of the Sustainable Development Strategy-, more than 85% of the Spanish companies that participated in the consultation claims to be working on the SDGs. This reflects that sustainability has gone from being a trend to a characteristic of the companies of the future.

At this point, I would like to refer to the consultation exercise that I just mentioned. It is a clear example that our job is not only to guide companies, it also consists of listen to them and raise your voice on the most decisive issues of sustainable development.

We did it with the SDGs and we also do it with national issues, such as this Sustainable Development Strategy in which we had to contribute the perspective of the Spanish business sector based on a consultation with more than 1,900 entities. We also work like this in the business field of human rights.

And to promote these transformations, we always try to stay one step ahead, hand in hand with the vanguard of sustainable development. In this sense, we have been pioneers in development of guidelines and guidance through the initiative Science Based Targets (STBi) with the campaign Business Ambition for 1.5°C, the Women’s Empowerment Principles or the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, among others.

Initiatives all of them that mark a standard of action that has transformed the approach to business. Where once “do no harm” was a common focus for the global business community, today we are reaching a new landscape of high expectations and responsibilities: turning the challenges of our planet and our economy into business opportunities.

So that companies can comply with all of them, our value proposition includes a wide catalog of training, tools, guides and informative publications, review services and reporting, work groups, opportunities for networking and visibility actions.

In addition, in recent years we have launched three acceleration programs that focus on the most pressing challenges of our time. The Target Gender Equality aims increase the leadership of women in companies in line with target 5.5 of SDG 5 on gender equality.

The Climate Ambition Accelerator is focused on reducing emissions as a key to fight against climate change; and SDG Ambition, a pioneering program with a new methodology to modify business operations and management in order to achieve a substantial impact on the SDGs.

Our main target audience is the entire business fabric, regardless of its sector or size. But they also belong to the Global Compact civil society and academic entities.

Each and every one of the organizations has an impact on society, the planet and economic development and, therefore, all of them must work to make it positive. From the Global Compact we are aware that many of them are already doing it, we see it day by day with our partners. But we still have a long way to go.

We face great challenges and disruptions. We have seen it with the covid-19 pandemic and we are seeing it with climate change. The magnitude of these challenges demands the response of a united business sector and with a different purpose than the traditional one. With a strategy based on which economies prosper when humanity does too.

This can only happen if our relationship with the planet is sustainable. The success of all of us depends on our ability to leave no one behind. Today we are at a key moment in which reorient economies and production systems towards a sustainable course.

Those purpose-driven companies are what we call the companies of the future. Companies that, thanks to their commitment to sustainability, will set a new course for the world, more resilient and respectful of people and the environment.

For all those who understand business this way, from the United Nations Global Compact we will continue to act as guides, as a leader who gives them a voice and as an initiative that keeps them at the forefront of sustainability. In short, as an ally to achieve the world we want.

*** Cristina Sánchez is executive director of the United Nations Global Compact Spain.

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