Putting HR into sustainability

Bridget Williams, from Bead and Proceed, explores where and how HR professionals can start to get to grips with sustainable development goals (SDGs).

According to Forbes, sustainability is one of the 10 biggest business trends for 2021 everyone must be ready for. However, ‘trend’ suggests more of a fashion statement than a practice that determines our future. We’re hearing and seeing this word more often, and we know it’s important. It’s a term we all connect with but often find it hard to put into action, so, where should we start?

Where to start

In 2015, the New Zealand Government adopted a framework to help New Zealanders action sustainability: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs focus on 17 diverse goals ranging from climate action to gender equality, to poverty, life on land and below our waters, to name a few. The SDGs are a blueprint and organised framework for international cooperation to help achieve global sustainable development for the period of 15 years to 2030 (the SDGs’ deadline).

Before you start thinking, “Oh, great, another framework”, the SDGs are different and have unique elements that make them particularly special:

• because all 193 United Nations member states adopted the SDGs, they are the largest globally recognised framework for sustainability

• they focus on sustainability in all its forms: economic, social and environmental, making them relevant to every industry

• they hold developed nations accountable for helping developing nations achieve the goals by the 2030 deadline

• the United Nations does not own the SDGs: we all do, which makes it the responsibility of everyone to take action.

Taking action towards the SDGs starts by understanding them and connecting to the goals personally. At face value, the goals seem like colourful, fluffy aspirations. They are not! Like any SMART goal, they are defined and measured by their 169 targets and 232 indicators.

Next steps

Be sure to review the targets that sit behind the SDGs you align to, and when selecting those you can focus on, be honest about how you can make a realistic and tangible contribution towards the goal. Think about the connections, platforms and resources you can leverage to take you from passively working in that SDG space to having a real impact.

Then I encourage you to go one step further and align the SDGs to your workplace. Already we’re seeing the SDGs being weaved through organisational and business strategies and being reported against.

HR is about people, and so are the SDGs. They are also known as the People’s Goals, and essential to the SDGs is the notion, ‘leave no one behind’. Forbes might tell us ‘sustainability’ is trending, but let’s turn that trend into action. We can start by connecting with the goals personally and using HR as a tool to take all staff on the journey – a journey to achieve the world we want and need by 2030.

As quoted by Francois-Henri Pinault: “Sustainable development is a fundamental break that’s going to reshuffle the entire deck. There are companies today that are going to dominate in the future simply because they understand that.” Enough said.

Why businesses and HR are stepping up to be SDG champions

1. The SDGs can help communicate and illustrate company values. Link your wellbeing programmes and diversity and inclusion workshops back to the SDGs.

2. The SDGs are an effective tool for recruitment and retention. Weaving the SDGs through your business not only attracts talent but helps retain it when staff feel they are part of a collective mission and their values and input matter.

3. The SDGs are a helpful framework to discuss essential issues in a safe environment.

The SDG framework is a wonderful way to bring up issues of wellbeing (SDG 3), diversity and inclusion (SDG 10), feminism and gender equality (SDG 5) and climate action (SDG 13). This is a framework that covers all these challenges and more, serving as an effective feedback loop on issues staff care about but might need help to articulate and communicate.

4. The SDGs are linked to employment law and HR obligations that already exist.

One only has to look at the relevant legislation that concerns HR to see how interconnected the framework already is. For example the:

• Minimum Wage Act 1983 – links to SDG 8

• Equal Pay Act 1972 – links to SDG 8 and SDG 5

• Human Rights Act 1993 – links to SDG 5, 8, and 10

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 – SDG 8 and SDG 3.

5. Investing in the SDGs is good for business.

The United Nations estimates that achieving the SDGs by 2030 could generate US$12 trillion in economic activity across the global economy and create 380 million new jobs by 2030.

Bridget Williams is the founder of the social enterprise Bead and Proceed, which exists to educate people about the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and inspire action towards them. Her passion for sustainability and using creativity as a tool for innovation has made her a recognised SDG expert, helping organisations with sustainable strategy and SDG reporting. Bridget is a selected World Economic Forum Global Shaper and member of the Asia New Zealand Foundation Leadership Network, which has led her to become a creditable global change maker. Her efforts have been recognised and endorsed by the Rt Hon Helen Clark and the JCI Osaka Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the Year programme.