The black summer of 2019-2020 has seen the Australian landscape suffer unprecedented destruction. Climate change will continue to dramatically alter our environment, threatening political stability, degrading entire ecosystems, displacing whole communities and undermining business operations. To respond, businesses will need to undergo drastic transformations, embrace emerging economic opportunities and deeply embed principles of sustainability. Businesses no longer have the luxury of time. They must step away from a business as usual approach and reposition themselves as more responsible and sustainably savvy. In 2020, activism will continue to grow globally; lack of trust in both public and private institutions shows no signs of waning; investor pressures on businesses to perform better in matters of ESG will become more pointed; the gap between those that understand business ethics versus those that do not will grow; and the need for business leaders to set bolder human rights and environmental targets will become more pronounced. This report outlines the key pressures facing businesses in 2020, and what companies can do to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the challenges in our landscape to ensure their long-term viability. The opportunity for business to respond and lead the change is clear. How they choose to tackle these major pressures however will be both critical and defining.

The recent Black Summer of bushfires has sharpened the focus on how climate change affects health and served as a wake-up call for governments and business to understand the cost of inaction. Whilst climate change is often marked by extreme weather events, rising sea levels and polar bears teetering on melting ice sheets, the impacts on human health if left unaddressed could be devastating. The challenges ahead are immense but as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced, so too does the opportunity for government and business to implement measures that align with the Paris Agreement. Explore what your organisation can do to take action. Read Now

Provides guidance on the evolving business and human rights legal landscape and the consequent legal considerations that apply to multinational companies. Today, multinational companies must navigate increasingly complex human rights obligations, identify human rights risk in supply chains through due diligence, and take steps to mitigate such risks or make public disclosures. This topic is relevant to professionals tasked with embedding sustainability and human rights considerations in their business strategy. This report was developed by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP with input from the participants of the UN Global Compact Decent Work in Global Supply Chains Action Platform.

The 4 August port explosions in Beirut came as Lebanon faced a multi-faceted crisis. The United Nations Global Compact, Connecting Business Initiative and UN OCHA are now calling on the private sector to support relief and recovery efforts. Learn what your company can do in the new Business Guide. 

This Guide equips Australian businesses with the the practical knowledge, tools and skills to tackle existing and future global challenges and accelerate their contributions to the SDGs. The Guide highlights the need for business to play an active role in achieving the SDGs and provides practical guidance and examples to inspire further action. This is through the insights and experiences of many Australian companies leading in their commitments and actions to sustainable business. A guide for Australian senior leaders will provide you with: Better understanding of the SDGs, the benefits the SDGs can provide for business, and the need for business to play an active role in achieving the SDGs; Practical tools and examples to support business leaders to create, demonstrate, measure and communicate their commitment, leadership and actions to achieving the SDGs.

Examines how companies can navigate complex multi-tiered supply chains and their associated challenges as part of their efforts to advance decent work in their global supply chains. While multi-tier supply chains have the advantage of driving efficiency, reducing planning cycle lead times and reducing possible business disruptions, they also increase the risk of causing or contributing to human rights impacts and decent work deficits, particularly in the lower tiers of the chain. This is exacerbated in a crisis situation such as a pandemic, where workers’ rights and conditions may be compromised and income threatened as a result of order cancellations, factory shut-downs, or layoffs. This report seeks to guide multinational enterprises in reducing global supply chain vulnerabilities and provides proactive measures companies can take and best practice examples to draw inspiration from.

The Blue Resilience Brief outlines areas where scaling-up joint science-industry action could enhance the resilience of the blue economy and contribute towards a more sustainable future.

The CFO Principles supplement the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles to support companies in the transition to sustainable development and to leverage corporate finance and investments toward the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).    

This publication presents the approach through which the ten SDG Ambition benchmarks can be integrated into core business processes and systems to enable effective measurement & management of sustainability performance. Business leaders can use this publication to identify the system opportunities to integrate the SDGs into core business processes.

This publication establishes the initial set of SDG Ambition benchmarks that challenge organizations to set more ambitious goals and targets in the areas in which business is positioned to have a substantial impact. Business leaders can use this document to support their strategy and set goals ambitious enough to deliver the SDGs by 2030.

Financial institutions are the key to unlocking the system-wide change needed to reach net-zero emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. The Science Based Targets initiative’s new framework allows financial institutions – including banks, investors, insurance companies, pension funds and others – to set science-based targets to align their lending and investment activities with the Paris Agreement.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has launched a process to develop the first science-based global standard for corporate net-zero target setting, to ensure that companies’ net-zero targets translate into action that is consistent with achieving a net-zero world by no later than 2050. The paper lays out the conceptual foundations for corporate net-zero target setting, including clarity on what it means for companies to reach net-zero emissions, analysis of existing net-zero target setting practices, assessment of strategies that are consistent with achieving a net-zero economy, and initial recommendations for science-based net-zero goals. The conceptual foundations discussed in the paper will be translated into detailed guidelines and criteria to be developed by the initiative as part of a continued multi-stakeholder process.