Learn about how companies in the UN Global Compact are taking action to advance corporate sustainability around the world.

Seeks to advance the discussion on how the private sector can make positive contributions to peace in conflict-affected and high-risk areas around the world and, as a result, help to the realization of SDG16. This document complements existing materials such as the UN Global Compact’s Guidance on Responsible Business in Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas with a new perspective on deliberate contributions to peace by companies.

Learn about how companies in the UN Global Compact are taking action to advance corporate sustainability around the world.

Calls upon Governments to bring down legal barriers restricting economic opportunities for women, and by doing so, help create an enabling environment for inclusive economic growth. Open for membership-based organizations to add their logo in support.

Various stakeholder groups are mounting calls for Boards of Directors to take sustainability into account while adhering to their legal duties to shareholders. This puts questions about fiduciary duty front and center. Careful legal analyses of such questions have been prepared over the past year by law firms all over the world. The collection of memoranda below will inform and enrich discussion among Board directors, and the lawyers who counsel them, about how changing circumstances near and far are affecting their ability to meet fiduciary duty requirements. 

 Prof. Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans of Harvard Business School have led this collaboration which included the UN Global Compact, the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Sustainable Development and PRI, Their aim was to gather legal perspectives from law firms in a wide range of countries. Each participating law firm used a standard research template developed by Linklaters in the UK to structure their respective legal memo. The legal memos are posted below with the permission of the participating firms. To further grow the research, enquiries from law firms in countries that do not already have a legal memo are welcome. If you do not see your country listed and want to know if one is being prepared, please contact Ingvild Soerensen (soerensen@unglobalcompact.org).

Jointly hosted by the UN Global Compact and the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, this webinar will examined the human dimensions of climate change. The webinar explored how climate change undermines human rights, including the right to adequate food, water and health, as well as the disproportionate impact climate change has on vulnerable groups such as women and children. This webinar provides an opportunity to discuss climate change through a human rights lens and will review various ways that business can respect human rights when taking action on climate change. (2015)

Provides an overview of the current and potential role of institutional investors, companies, banks and foundations in the design and implementation of a financing strategy for global sustainability.

The UN Global Compact, in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), launched the Business Action Pledge in Response to the Refugee Crisis. The pledge is a call to companies and other stakeholders to take action to diminish the suffering of people forced to flee conflict and support solutions for the resulting widespread societal disruption. Companies with operations or supply chains in countries that are producing, transiting and receiving refugees are called upon to demonstrate leadership by taking action – as an individual company or in partnership with others. This webinar explores the ways that companies can best support efforts, based on their own assets and capabilities.

Demonstrates how companies can help to advance the SDGs by operating responsibly in alignment with universal principles and finding opportunities to innovate to address societal challenges. Through a commitment to the UN Global Compact, companies are taking the first step to contribute to achieving the SDGs and have access to a range of tools to scale up their efforts.

The Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative is a peer-to-peer learning platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, regulators, and companies, can enhance corporate transparency – and ultimately performance – on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) issues and encourage sustainable investment. Since 2012, several other leading exchanges have joined the group of SSE Partner Exchanges. UNCTAD, the UN Global Compact, the PRI and UNEP-FI, as the core organizer of the SSE Initiative, also committed to supporting stock exchanges in this effort. The SSE initiative invites exchanges globally to become a Partner Stock Exchange within the SSE by making a voluntary public commitment to promote improved ESG disclosure and performance among listed companies. http://www.sseinitiative.org

Hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Private Sector Forum 2015 focused on the role of the private sector in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Convened in the context of the UN summit for the adoption of Agenda 2030, the interactive Forum was designed to increase understanding of efforts underway by the private sector and civil society, and provide a platform for the private sector to announce long-term goals and partnerships that will make an important contribution towards achieving sustainable development for all.

Report from a multi-stakeholder meeting convened on 11 December 2014 to highlight successful interventions by business in support of Ebola response, identify lessons learned, and explore how success can be replicated. The Report outlines the role of business in long-term regional recovery, and considers how to foster more effective collaboration across sectors to face future global public health challenges.