Since 2017 I have leveraged my personal passion for corporate sustainability, data analytics and digital media to extract pertinent data, present it in digital video format, and now analyze it to paint a picture of what some of the world’s most responsible companies report in terms of their sustainability/CSR performance, especially when matched with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This initiative was called Sustainimate and you can read more about it here.
While a more detailed white paper is forthcoming, I have presented below some graphical summaries of the profiles of the companies and reports I analysed, plus which SDGs were addressed by the reported data, primarily from the 2015-2017 period.
Note that I attempted to choose a sample of geographically and sector diverse organizations who had lately been recognized for their sustainability/reporting prowess by an independent body/publication. From among the plethora of useful information contained in their sustainability reports, I subjectively singled out what I considered to be relevant numerical data for easy incorporation into the short Sustainimate videos. I have analysed this dataset for the information presented below.
As is apparent from the above, the top 5 SDGs for which the most reported data was identified are:
- SDG 12: Responsible Consumption & Production
- SDG 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities
- SDG 13: Climate Action
- SDG 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth
- SDG 5: Gender Equality
From the table above, it is evident that the Manufacturing and IT sectors have been focusing on reporting on their responsible consumption-production, community engagement and climate impact performance. The Manufacturing sector has also focused on the occupational well-being front, while the IT industry is actively deploying clean energy to service their energy-intensive operations, such as data centers. To a lesser extent, the Energy and Finance sectors have also prioritized addressing the afore-mentioned SDGs in their reports.
Guest Writer: Badar Farooq
Badar Farooq is an astute Social Responsibility and Sustainability professional. His professional experience spans the consulting, engineering, construction & industrial sectors in an integrated Corporate Responsibility function across industries ranging from energy, power, infrastructure to real estate. He is the Founder of Sustainimate – a digital project aimed at increasing transparency on corporate sustainability performance reporting and stakeholder engagement. He works across the MENA region and resides primarily in Dubai.