Improving government and business coordination through the use of consistent SDGs indicators. A comparative analysis of national (Belgian) and business (pharma and retail) sustainability indicators.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a widely recognized framework to guide sustainable development policies and actions. This papers aims to analyze the potential of SDGs to improve government and business coordination by aligning their sustainability reporting practices. To do so, we assess the consistency between the sustainability indicators at the national level (Belgian) and of businesses (pharmaceutical and retail sectors). We aim to answer the following questions: Do they measure the same SDGs issues? Do they develop similar quantitative targets on similar issues? And how can data... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Malay, Olivier
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Verlag/Hrsg.: Elsevier BV
Schlagwörter: Sustainability indicators / Micro macro articulation / Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) / Beyond GDP indicators / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) / Pharmaceuticals / Retail
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26915406
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/237540

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a widely recognized framework to guide sustainable development policies and actions. This papers aims to analyze the potential of SDGs to improve government and business coordination by aligning their sustainability reporting practices. To do so, we assess the consistency between the sustainability indicators at the national level (Belgian) and of businesses (pharmaceutical and retail sectors). We aim to answer the following questions: Do they measure the same SDGs issues? Do they develop similar quantitative targets on similar issues? And how can data from one level be used by the other in order to better coordinate their respective actions? Firstly, we show that indicators are developed for each SDG at the national level but fall behind at the business level on several issues, especially regarding goals 9, 10 and 11. Secondly, it appears that there is a general disconnect between both levels' quantitative targets. Thirdly, we show that business measures are poorly focused on issues which are critical at the national level, i.e. facing unfavourable evolutions. Finally, a focus on GHG emissions shows that Belgian GHG targets at the national level are not compatible with reaching the climate objective of 1.5°, while some business targets (scope 1 & 2) seem consistent with this goal, despite measurement uncertainties. These results show room for improvement of indicators in order to ease the coordination of actors and also for public intervention to align businesses on the achievement of SDGs.