The 2022 Impact Report presents a comprehensive overview of the Water Resilience Coalition's work during the past year. It elaborates on key milestones, including their expansion of 21 collective actions across 15 basins in 6 countries, the launch of the Brazil Chapter and their 2030 Strategy. The report also sheds light on our successful efforts to raise the profile of water action at global forums like the World Economic Forum, Stockholm World Water Week and COP27.

A dramatic rise of interlinked global challenges is forcing business executives to navigate new levels of uncertainty. The war in Ukraine is producing alarming cascading effects across a world already impacted by COVID-19 and climate change. The risks of generations lost, as well as waves of food insecurity, energy shortages, unfolding debt crises, and social unrest are very real. In this context of uncertainty, more and more chief executive officers (CEOs) are stepping into broader leadership capacities, propelled by business necessity and by evolving societal expectations of their role. The UN Global Compact has compiled perspectives from CEOs across the globe, to provide policymakers, companies, and the public with practical insights into business leadership in today’s novel and dynamic operating environment. This report describes how today’s CEOs face complex challenges to their operations—and to their sustainability agenda.

The Annual Report of the Global Seaweed Coalition presents the results of the first two years of the Coalition’s operation, formerly known as the Safe Seaweed Coalition.

The United Nations Global Compact-Accenture Global Private Sector SDG Stocktake offers an appraisal of private sector contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the first half (2015-2022), and a clear path forward for the second half (2023-2030). Based on a combination of innovative data sources, including insights from more than 2,800 business leaders around the world, this report measures the global private sector's impact on the SDGs for the first time.

In 2015, the UK Government joined every other country worldwide and committed to Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and through it the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Goals provide a holistic framework that defines our global priorities and aspirations for 2030. They represent a crucial opportunity to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect our planet. Achieving the Goals requires an unprecedented effort across all aspects of society – and business sits at the heart of it. The SDGs are not just another sustainability framework, but the only universally agreed blueprint to turn meaningful ambition into transformational change. Yet, with just seven years to go and already halfway through the 2030 Agenda, we are far from achieving the Goals in the UK. There is a multifaceted business case for smaller companies to embrace sustainability. Stakeholders – from regulators to investors to customers to employees – expect all companies to be improving their sustainability performance and they are ready to reward companies that embrace this agenda and punish those that do not. However, SMEs consistently report difficulties with embedding the SDGs at the core of their business models. The UN Global Compact Network UK, in partnership with Irwin Mitchell, has developed the SDG Playbook for SMEs: a step-by-step guide to help smaller companies unlock the competitive advantages associated with embracing the SDGs.    

More and more countries and regions pay attention to the retirement, scrapping and recycling of power batteries, and formulate corresponding battery regulations. This report collects the data of LFP batteries, NCM batteries and rapidly developing SSBs commonly used in electric vehicles and calculates and analyzes their carbon footprints. It compares the energy consumption and environmental impact of different types of EV batteries in the process of raw material acquisition and manufacturing. By comparing the emission reduction potential of different recycling technologies, it puts forward carbon emission reduction measures in the battery life cycle.   As part of the GDI for SDG project series reports, this report puts forward a series of suggestions to promote sustainable development of the battery industry, optimize the environmental performance of batteries and reduce carbon emissions.

During an event held in Beijing today with high-level representatives from government, businesses and academia, the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, unveiled new guidance and assessment tools for companies to advance sustainable infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).   By shedding light on the relationship between the BRI and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the reports offer practical tools and insights for companies to ensure that their projects align with global sustainability trends, particularly the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact covering human rights, labor practices, the environment and the fight against corruption.

The ILO Helpdesk is a service from the International Labour Organization that provides a one-stop-shop to help company managers and workers understand the application of international labour standards.

This Annual Report is intended to provide our stakeholders and the public with an overview of the progress of the UN Global Compact across key strategic and operational focus areas as well as to highlight key activities undertaken and resources created to promote business action on UN issues and priorities. The inclusion of company examples in this report is intended strictly for learning purposes and does not constitute an endorsement of the individual companies.

The SDG Ambition Benchmark Reference Sheets provide illustrative details regarding the steps to integrate each of the SDG Ambition Benchmarks into a company’s business systems, as well as the key design decisions required to engage technology partners.  Access the 10 reference sheets by filling out the form below. 

Every year on 8 March, many companies take the occasion of International Women’s Day (IWD) to celebrate women in their workforce. This document aims to provide recommendations on how to meaningfully leverage IWD to advance gender equality and move the needle for women and girls. These recommendations are applicable for every day.

A just transition to a net zero future is an important undertaking, requiring bold actions from all parties — and effort from corporates is definitely an important one. The UN Global Compact helps businesses to align with its Ten Principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has published this whitepaper to plot a roadmap for corporates to reach net zero, facilitating the private sector to play its role in the pathway.