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Phase 1: Business Contributions to the SDGs - A Student Assessment

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Bertelsmann

Read the Final Report on the Pilot phase Business Contributions to the SDGs - A Student Assessment

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development it is of high relevance to track and assess the contributions of business to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To engage the next generation of business leaders in this process, and tap into their sustainability mind-set, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative, WikiRate, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the UN Global Compact have partnered to develop the project “Business Contributions to the SDGs - A Student Assessment.”

The project brings together educators from around the world to engage business students to support the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through classroom assignments. Select institutions engage students in research on UN Global Compact companies through analysis of their sustainability and Communications on Progress reports (COPs). Students participate in a collaborative global research effort - designing and refining data collection projects, then analysing and interpreting collected data.

First Pilot Phase

The pilot included 9 higher education institutions, with 13 professors in 7 countries across 5 continents, engaging 950 students and generating over 20,000 data points on corporate sustainability performance. Student participants with different levels of education, from first year undergraduates through master’s students, generated data through researching corporate sustainability and annual reports of Global Compact participants submitted as Communication on Progress reports (COPs), and added it to the WikiRate platform.

Results of the pilot and research were presented at the 2017 PRME Global Forum in New York in July, and at the UN General Assembly Hall during the SDGs Business Forum Session: Reporting Business Progress on the SDGs as part of the High Level Political Forum 2017. Analyses will further help the UN Global Compact in its efforts to track, assess and communicate business contributions to and impact on the SDGs.

This year’s challenge marks the start of an effort to research and analyze business performance towards the 2030 Agenda, with students and academics working together to drive change.

Participants in 1st Pilot Round

Browse Projects to see the topic focus of each pilot (some have more than one project due to class sizes).

  • Glasgow Caledonian University - Scotland

  • HHL Leipzig - Germany

  • Oxford Brookes University - United Kingdom

  • Royal Holloway School of Management - United Kingdom

  • Universidad EAFIT - Colombia

  • University of Pretoria - Gordon Institute of Business Science - South Africa

  • University of Western Australia Business School - Australia

  • University of Wollongong Faculty of Business - Australia

  • Wilfrid Laurier University - Canada