KICG

SDG Voyager

A practical guide to aligning business excellence with the Sustainable Development Goals

Under the leadership of Dr. Annette Kleinfeld, Professor for Business & Society at the KICG of the "SDG Voyager"- a guideline for the perception of corporate responsibility in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was developed.

The document is a cooperation project, which was developed in cooperation with the German Network Business Ethics (DNWE), the German Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN Germany), with the collaboration of Hans Kroeder (learn2improve) and with the support of the Senate Committee for Internationality of the HTWG. The publication offers concrete recommendations for action for companies and organisations that want to orientate their core business towards the 17 goals for sustainable development of the United Nations.

The first, unpublished version of Voyager was produced as early as 2015 in collaboration with Monika Shukla, an Indian research fellow who was at the time a German Chancellor Fellow and participant in a Humboldt Foundation exchange programme for international executives. Ms Shukla brought with her professional experience from her home country and special CSR knowledge. Almost at the same time as she became acquainted with the CSR debate in Germany, the SDGs were published and the idea of publishing them was born - one of the first to be dedicated to the implementation of the 17 goals from a business perspective. In the meantime, the number of international publications on this topic has risen inflationarily, but answers to the question of what it means for corporate responsibility management of companies to make a concrete contribution to the SDGs still seem to be less common. 

Instead of unilaterally demanding companies to report their sustainability activities, SDG Voyager starts earlier and wants to encourage companies of all sizes to become familiar with the fields of action of corporate responsibility. Many companies will find that they already make a considerable contribution to sustainable development in some areas. In other areas, however, there is still an urgent need for action. SDG Voyager would like to introduce these topics and support companies in fulfilling their responsibility towards their stakeholders and society.

The English-language publication first illuminates the development history and significance of SDGs, and then shows what contribution ISO 26000 as a "Guide to the social responsibility of organizations" (ISO 26000:2010) can make to the implementation of SDGs in companies. In addition, it becomes clear that in this context an examination of the contents of ISO 20400 as a new standard for sustainable procurement can also be helpful for companies.

Finally, the central building block of the SDG Voyager is the synopsis or a comparison of the contents of SDGs and ISO 26000. At the end of the consideration of each individual objective, a best-practice example from international corporate practice follows for illustration.

The publication can be downloaded here.

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