With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development it is of high relevance to governments, companies and their stakeholders to track and assess the contributions of business to the achievement of the SDGs. This project is a partnership between the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and Wikirate, to support this need, engaging students in advancing the SDGs by proactively researching, analyzing and sharing the achievements of companies in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as reported in sustainability reports and Communication on Progress reports (COPs) submitted to the UN Global Compact.

By researching and analyzing company performance and making new data available on Wikirate, students and researchers contribute to understanding corporate sustainability and issues of subjectivity, contextualization of data and comparability.

There are three main components to this exercise:

1. Collecting and add data to Wikirate according to the set of metrics in your project for 1 company over 1 year.
2. In parallel to the data research, collecting qualitative information according to the SDGs and metrics researched, which provide additional context to understanding how companies are reporting to the SDGs and different issue areas.
3. Peer review of data research.

Pre-research

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

• When you are signed into Wikirate, join your Research Group: by clicking on the link to your class (see the organizer list on this page), and clicking on "Join Group."

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, or COPs, are reports that companies participating in the UN Global Compact must submit annually to the organization.The reports show how much progress companies have made in 10 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.

• 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 info@wikirate.org