Communication on Progress

A new way to communicate progress on the Ten Principles is here

The enhanced Communication on Progress

We are pleased to announce that our interim digital platform is now available for submissions of the 2023 Communication on Progress (CoP). In light of the technical issues experienced, submitting the CoP is now voluntary for 2023 and no participants will be considered “Non-communicating” or “Delisted” for failure to submit a CoP this year. For those participants wishing to publicly submit a CoP in 2023, the reporting deadline is 31 December. .

Benefits of the enhanced Communication on Progress

The enhanced CoP enables participating companies of the UN Global Compact to:

  • Measure and demonstrate progress to stakeholders and the public on the Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals in a consistent and harmonized way.
  • Build credibility and brand value by showing their commitment to the Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Receive insight, learn and continuously improve performance by identifying gaps, accessing guidance and setting sustainability goals.
  • Compare performance against peers with access to one of the largest sources of free, public and comparable corporate sustainability data.



Prepare for the Communication on Progress

Learn more about the requirements, deadlines and how to best prepare for the new CoP by reading the five steps below.


Step 1: Understand your requirements

The enhanced Communication on Progress (CoP) consists of two elements:

  • CEO Statement of Continued Support to publicly express your company’s ongoing commitment to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact at the highest level. The statement is a standardized template that is signed electronically.  The CEO Statement is acknowledged through the completion of the 2023 CoP but will not be published on participants’ public profiles for this year.

  • CoP Questionnaire, which focuses on five disclosure areas (Governance, Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption) is designed to help participating companies monitor performance across the Ten Principles. Access the questionnaire template here.

For the 2023 reporting year, a sustainability report uploaded through the interim digital platform can be submitted in lieu of the CoP questionnaire. Please review other 2023 specifications in our policy guidance here.
SDGs
SDGs

Step 2: Know your deadlines

For the 2023 reporting year, submitting a CoP is voluntary for all participants. Participants who wish to complete a 2023 CoP have until 31 December to submit a report using the interim digital platform.

The UN Global Compact highly encourages all participants to demonstrate their commitment and progress toward the Ten Principles and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the 2023 interim digital platform. However, there is no penalty for failing to submit a 2023 CoP and participant status will not be affected.

The CoP will be mandatory for participants in 2024 and beyond. Participants who fail to submit a 2024 CoP will be ‘Delisted’ as of 1 January 2025.

Step 3: Prepare your report

  • ✓    Confirm your CEO’s continued support of the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact.
  • ✓    Review the CoP questionnaire to understand the questions asked and the data that will need to be collected.
  • ✓    Use the CoP Guidebook here to get information on how to answer the questions, find calculations and explore a glossary of key terms to help you complete the CoP questionnaire.
  • ✓    Begin your data collection process on time! You can use the spreadsheet here to support your data collection process with relevant team members and the CoP Data Compilation Checklist here (see p. 74).
  • ✓    Check that you have access to the UN Global Compact dashboard here. Refer to the user's guide to learn how to request credentials.

SDGs
SDGs

Step 4: Complete and submit your CoP

Once you have…

  • ✓    Answered all questions in the CoP questionnaire
  • ✓    Signed the CEO Statement of Continued Support
  • ✓    Uploaded relevant supplemental documentation (e.g. policies, sustainability report, etc) that you would like to VOLUNTARILY add to complement your submission
  • ✓    Made a last review of the information provided

… you are ready to submit your CoP through the digital platform.

Step 5: Visualize your submitted CoP report

Upon submission of the CoP, all participants will be able to view their completed CoP report on their participant profile on the UN Global Compact website, where it will be accessible to any stakeholder and the public as an html webpage.

Participants will also be able to visualize their CoP answers, track and understand performance, and benchmark against peers through their data visualization dashboard. The UN Global Compact will not score or rank of participating companies associated with the CoP questionnaire.

SDGs

Please note that all data, including supplemental documentation that was submitted by a participating company through the CoP digital platform, will be made publicly available on the UN Global Compact website. This data may be used by the UN Global Compact in aggregate form to present trends or included in reports about the status of corporate sustainability. The UN Global Compact does not have any responsibility on the accuracy of the data submitted by its participating companies nor on how this public data will be used by other stakeholders.


Resources

Find Your Local Network CoP Questionnaire CoP Guidebook
FAQs Access the CoP Academy page for
on-demand sessions and templates 		CEO Statement of Continued Support


Need Support?

Reach us at cop-support@unglobalcompact.org