Sustainability report: consumer companies’ alignment with the UN SDGs

Today the world finds itself halfway through an ambitious journey to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by the United Nations in 2015. The 17 goals have provided a framework for all of humanity to unite behind, bringing governments, organizations and companies together to deliver a better, more sustainable future.

But the world has experienced an unprecedented pandemic, supply chains have seen significant disruption, inflation has hit new highs, and geopolitical tensions have escalated into armed conflict. Factors like these are creating a perfect storm that threatens to derail the momentum. This cannot be allowed to happen. As the 2030 deadline approaches , we must instead accelerate and scale our activities to ensure the goals can be met.

In the spirit of collaboration, the EY Global Consumer practice and The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) developed this report for the CGF’s 2022 Global Summit. By developing insights from interviews with CEOs of prominent consumer-facing companies, we explore how they see the SDGs halfway through their journey. What goals do they most strongly align with? Where do they see challenges within the framework? And, going forward, where do they see the greatest opportunity to have a material impact?

Five key takeaways focus on the need for prioritization, measurement, purposeful alignment, collaboration and consumer engagement .