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From ambition to action

When it comes to realizing the SDGs, the need for action is imperative and urgent. We’ve explored the critical role that business has to play in realizing this agenda, so how can you and your company get involved?

Individual action

  • 1. Make the SDGs your business

    Keep up with the sustainable development agenda and the Goals that are most relevant to your part of the world.

  • 2. Make it personal

    Think about how individual actions in both your professional and personal life contribute to the SDGs, and the changes that you can make to play your part in the transformation that is needed.

  • 3. Spread the word

    Engage your customers, colleagues, friends and family on this agenda.

Useful resources

  • The Good Life Goals: The Good Life Goals help to explore the vital role of individual action in achieving the SDGs. These goals lay out 85 ways anyone can contribute toward the huge, planet-changing objectives that sit at the heart of the SDG agenda.

    The Good Life Goals

  • The Good Life Emojis
A girl standing among flowers

Company action

  • 1. Understand how your company interacts with the SDGs

    Develop a thorough understanding of how your company’s activities translate into economic, environmental and social impacts in relation to the SDGs.

  • 2. Set goals

    Plot a course toward enhancing positive and mitigating negative SDG impacts.

  • 3. Make business the solution

    Apply an SDG lens at the strategic level, harnessing your organization’s potential to develop innovative business solutions and lead the transformation to a more sustainable world.

  • 4. Communicate

    Engage in regular, transparent and balanced reporting around your company’s SDG performance and progress.

Useful resources

  • SDG Compass: This resource provides a useful five-step framework for companies, offering guidance on aligning their strategies and measuring and managing contributions to achieve the SDGs.

    SDG Compass

  • Analysis of Goals and Targets: This comprehensive document from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the UN Global Compact provides examples of how business can drive impact on each of the 169 SDG targets.

    Analysis of Goals and Targets

  • CEO Guide to the SDGs: Our CEO Guide to the SDGs succinctly lays out the implications of the SDG agenda for the private sector while positioning clear actions that business leaders can take to begin to integrate this agenda into their organizations.

    CEO Guide to the SDGs

Workers standing at their desk in a warehouse concentrating on what they are doing

Joint action

  • 1. Multi-stakeholder partnerships

    Explore new collaborations with a range of stakeholders to build partnerships that will help drive SDG impact at scale.

  • 2. Sector-level partnerships

    Come together with peers to set a collective vision for your industry and collaborate to realize sector transformation in line with the SDGs.

  • 3. Systemic partnerships

    Engage in ambitious initiatives that bring a broad cross-section of industries and other stakeholders together to tackle broader systemic issues and drive transformation.

Examples of collaboration in action

  • SDG Sector Roadmaps: WBCSD is working directly with numerous sectors on SDG road-mapping initiatives that help guide and inspire entire sectors as they seek to optimize their contributions to the SDGs.

    SDG Sector Roadmaps

  • The Food and Land Use Coalition: The Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) is a community of organizations and individuals committed to the urgent need to transform the way we produce and consume food and use our land for people, nature and climate.

    The Food and Land Use Coalition

  • Alliance to End Plastic Waste: This alliance has brought together more than 40 companies from throughout the plastics value chain with a view to ending the flow of plastic waste into the environment.

    Alliance to End Plastic Waste

Two people shaking hands

Test your knowledge

The SDGs are our sustainability roadmap for 2030, but how much do you remember about how your business activities can help to achieve them?

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Now that you know all about the SDGs, you are ready to take the next steps in building a more sustainable business.

Explore more at
WBCSD’s SDG Business Hub

The SDG Business Hub captures and packages the latest insights, developments and emerging trends in SDG work to support businesses in navigating this dynamic agenda.

SDG Business Hub

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