Fortune 500 should build new development goals into business plans, shareholder pitches and publicity
NEW YORK, June 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Advocates of sustainable development called on the world's most powerful companies to build the United Nations' agenda combating global ills into their business plans, pitches to shareholders and messages to consumers.
Letters calling upon businesses to promote the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been sent to Fortune 500 companies, said Alaa Murabit, an SDG advocate and founder of The Voice of Libyan Women rights group.
"Be inspirational to your consumers and show them by example how committed you are," Murabit said on Wednesday at a meeting of the U.N.'s Global Compact, an initiative aimed at promoting sustainability in business.
The 17 SDGs, which make up a blueprint for tackling issues from inequality and education to conflict and climate change over the next 15 years, were adopted last fall by the U.N.'s 193 member nations.
Implementing the goals is estimated to cost $3 trillion each year.
The letters to the Fortune 500 companies, which make the annual list based on their revenues, ask them to align their business goals with the SDGs and inform and educate their shareholders and employees, Murabit said.
Commitments made by the companies will be announced at the U.N.'s General Assembly meeting in September, she said.
"All business everywhere can and should play a role in improving our world," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Global Compact. "Let sustainability drive innovation and investment."
(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, editing by Alisa Tang. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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