Application Form

At the Global Compact, the search is on for the 2024 class of SDG Pioneers. It's time to celebrate the individuals who are using business as a force for good to advance the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through their own company or by mobilizing other businesses, SDG Pioneers are helping to reach one or more of the SDGs while also contributing to business success.

Are you setting ambitious SDG targets, at the right scale and impact at a company that participates in the UN Global Compact? If so, we want to hear your story.

When responding to all questions in the application form, please be sure to clearly communicate in detail your particular contributions and actions taken as an employee that have supported your company’s contribution(s) to the SDGs.

We need your permission to potentially share your story with the world.

Before completing the application, please review the eligibility criteria below to ensure you are eligible.

  • To be eligible, applicants must come from companies with active status as participants of the Global Compact. To maintain active status, companies must submit their Communication on Progress (CoP) for 2024 within the reporting time frame of 1 April to 31 July. Subsidiaries can participate if their parent company meets this obligation. To avoid disrupting the Pioneers application process, companies are strongly encouraged to submit their CoP by 1 June 2024. Failure to report by 31 July will disqualify a Pioneers application.
  • A change in CoP status subsequent to being recognized as a Local and/or Global SDG Pioneer may result in losing consideration for the SDG Pioneer title.
  • Companies must have joined the UN Global Compact prior to 1 October 2023.
  • Global Compact Network Board Chairs and Board Members are not eligible to apply, given their core role and influence at the Global Compact Network. However, other representatives from the company represented by the Board Chair and Board Members are welcome to apply. For Expansion Countries, Leadership Council members are also not eligible to apply, given their influence. However, other representatives from the companies represented by the Leadership Council members are welcome to apply.
  • If a representative of a Global Compact participating company has been part of the SDG Pioneers External Review Committee (e.g., member of the LN Board), this person will be asked to step down from their Committee role if a candidate from the same company will be applying to the same Pioneer local round.
  • Any individual who has been part of the SDG Pioneers External Review Committee will need to wait out for one cycle before submitting an application to the Local or Global round of the SDG Pioneers.
  • Previous Local or Global SDG Pioneers can apply for another year of recognition, but a thorough review of their application will be required to ensure it covers different activities/ projects than in the previous application. Additionally, if the former SDG Pioneer sat on the External Review Committee, this person will need to wait out one cycle since having covered that role before being able to submit an application again.
  • Global Compact Networks cannot recognize individuals from the same company within five years.

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SMEs are considered businesses with 10-249 employees while micro-enterprises would be businesses with 1-9 employees.


Which of the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) do your activities address? Please select all that apply, taking into account the interconnections between many SDG targets: *

Professional Reference: Please provide the name, title, and email address of a colleague/supervisor at your company who can attest to the work described in your application. *

*The UN Global Compact reserves the right to contact this person regarding the work described in your submission.

Questions? Email: sdgpioneers@unglobalcompact.org