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Research: Embedding the SDGs into curriculum - SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production+description

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Since 2016, professors and students have been using WikiRate to understand corporate sustainability reporting and disclosure challenges, while contributing to a public resource. 

The Sustainable Development Goal framework is a global effort to improve the state of the world today, and companies play a large role in helping to achieve those goals. The SDG Compass maps business-relevant indicators from a range of standards providers and other guidances for reporting to SDGs. This mapping has been used to identify metrics relevant to companies across the seventeen Global Goals, and support scoping for different research projects. 

Step-by-Step Guidance:

Pre-research

  • Create a WikiRate user profile by click “join” on wikirate.org. Create a username [name/student number/etc], add your email address and password, then click submit.

Research

  1. Find the company in your project to research and click the "Research" button. 
  2. Choose a metric and year to research and click the Metric details tab to read the methodology.
  3. In the "Sources" tab, check if the source you need is already on WikiRate. If it is, check this report for the data you need, and click the "cite" button. Otherwise you may add a new report or other sourcetype to the platform for citing.
  4. Once you have found the data, make sure the correct year is selected, and that the value is in the correct unit of measurement, and add it as your answer. If you cannot find the relevant value click Unknown. 
  5. Cite your source on the right-hand side of the window.
  6. Add a comment to your answer detailing the page number where you found your metric value (if applicable) and relevant excerpts from the report. If you did any conversions or calculations, explain how you did so in the comments. 
  7. Click Submit 
  8. Then, click Next to move onto the next metric, or choose another Year.

Further Guidance

Below are some frequently asked questions that might be useful for you if queries come up during your research. 

  • What is a metric? Metrics measure an aspect of company performance in a given year and each metric value must have a source. Researching metric answers is vital to supporting our work and growing a knowledge base on corporate performance.

  • What is a Communication on Progress (COP) report? Communication on Progress reports (COPs), are reports that companies participating in the UN Global Compact must submit annually to the organization. Often they are CSR or Annual Reports which show how much progress companies have made in sustainability categories that cover a range of environmental, social and governance indicators.

  • What do I do if the company I am researching doesn't provide the information I need? When you are trying to answer a WikiRate metric question but you cannot find the right information in a company’s report or website, answer the question with Unknown. This may be frustrating at first, but you should actually feel good about adding Unknown because you’re shining a light on a gap in that company’s reporting. You can also use this information to do a disclosure analysis or comparison between other companies' rates. 

  • What do I do if I enter a wrong value or year? Click on the value, then click the edit icon next to the year. Change your value or year, and click Submit.

  • What do I do if I encounter a technical problem? Go to Technical support to report the bug.

  • For all other questions or suggestions email