13.11.2024
Sustainable Development Goals in the company's strategy
Klucrative information:
- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are about progressing and achieving a company's economic goals while paying attention to the environment and society.
- The 2030 Agenda contains seventeen Sustainable Development Goals.
- Challenges to implementing a responsible development strategy can include a lack of know-how, limited financial resources, or public prejudices.
- A key step in developing a business into a sustainable company is to analyze and evaluate the company's capabilities.
- Implementing a Sustainability strategy brings many benefits to a company, but the most important is to remain competitive in the long term.
- The Sustainability Initiative is based on three main pillars: social, environmental and economic.
Details below!
What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
Sustainable Development Goals (Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs). are about progress and achieving the company's economic goals while paying attention to the environment and society. The Sustainable Development Strategy is characterized by its long-term nature. In order to systematize and encourage company and country action, the United Nations (UN) introduced the World Sustainability Initiative. The SDGs focus on five areas: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.
What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
The UN initiative, introduced in September 2015, includes the implementation of 17 goals and 169 actions. The plan is part of Agenda 2030, which sets out the most important challenges of our time and indicates a vision for a strategy to build a better world.
The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are:

Source: www.gov.pl
The Sustainable Development Goals created by the UN are long-term. Their implementation requires commitment from national governments, international organizations, NGOs, the scientific and business sectors, as well as citizens.
Integration of the Sustainable Development Goals into the company's strategy
Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals requires implementing appropriate practices and standards In all aspects of the company's operations. Developing corporate social responsibility issues is not an easy task, so in order to increase your chances of taking effective action, it's a good idea to get an in-depth understanding of the idea or hire people knowledgeable in the field. Experts can help work on a company's transformation towards sustainable energy management, community development, SDGs implementation, social responsibility, or ESG reporting, about which we have prepared a free download on our website.
Sample process for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals:
- Evaluation and analysis
Identify key areas where the company can make changes to improve its environmental and social impact.
- Goal setting
Setting specific, measurable and realistic ESG goals that the company wants to achieve.
- Implementation of activities
Implementation of strategies and activities leading to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Monitoring and reporting
Regularly measure progress and report results to ensure transparency and social accountability, but also to provide the company with information on progress toward its goals.
A key step in Corporate Sustainability is to analyze and assess a company's capabilities. Acting for responsible development without first preparing a business strategy can lead to counterproductive results.

Key areas of action and benefits for businesses
The key areas of corporate action on Sustainability can be divided into 3 main categories, namely environmental, social and economic goals.
- In the case of environmental protection, the Sustainable Development Goals are:
Raising consumer awareness of climate change, managing resources efficiently, keeping emissions as low as possible, investing in solutions to improve efficiency, using renewable energy sources, recycling, using a closed-loop economy.
- In order to achieve Sustainable Development in the social area, it is necessary:
create opportunities for the development of local communities and employees, ensure gender equality, promote sustainable consumption and production, provide quality work, ensure the safety and well-being of employees, and promote diversity.
- The Sustainable Development Initiative in the economic area consists of investments aimed at:
creating technological progress, making profits and business development in an ethical way, betting on proven and responsible sources of funding.
The benefits of implementing Sustainability policies for companies are many, but we can count among the most important ones:
- Increasing investor and supplier confidence,
- positive impact on image,
- access to subsidies,
- Innovation stimulation,
- cost reduction,
- Maintaining competitiveness in the long term,
- attracting talented employees,
- Retaining and motivating the currently employed,
- improving the bottom line.
Responsible management leads to maximizing the benefits of achieving Sustainable Development.

Challenges of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals
If a company wants to compete in the market with other companies in the long term sooner or later it must implement an ESG strategy. Challenges that are part of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy can be related to:
- additional financial outlay,
- lack of know-how,
- Replacement of machines with more environmentally friendly ones,
- changing the marketing message,
- cultural constraints.
Every company is unique, so the difficulty of implementing a responsible development strategy and meeting the SDGs can vary depending on the company's business profile.
ESG strategy - when to develop
Every company must adapt to market realities, which are changing faster and faster every year. Corporate development in the field of Sustainability is a key prerequisite for maintaining business competitiveness in the long term. The sooner a company's efforts in the area of Sustainability begin, the easier the road to achieving the business strategy goal will look. Integrating the SDGs is time-consuming, requires balanced management and the involvement of all areas of the company. However, it is worth noting the benefits of the Sustainability strategy for both the company and the natural and social environment, which in the long run outweigh the costs associated with business transformation.
An effective Sustainability Strategy is the future of every business
A brand development strategy toward a sustainable future is a trend that is integral to achieving long-term progress these days. Companies such as Ikea, Unilever, and Google have successfully implemented a Sustainability strategy, as we describe in the article ,,Sustainability strategies as part of company branding". The benefits of ESG / CSR / SDGs strategies are worth facing the challenges of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Corporate social responsibility is the future and the present of companies looking to compete at a higher level.
Contact us today and begin the transformation that will bring success to your business, environment and community.
Damian Marciniak
See other entries



Do It Yourself! - Assessing the attractiveness of a sector using Porter's 5 forces method as an example
See moreSee other entries


