What are the benefits for Includability of adopting the SDGs?
As a purpose-driven community network platform, we aim to impact as many goals as possible utilising our community expertise and partnerships. As we specialise as a networking platform and job board in the recruitment sector, there are six of the 17 SDGs that are baked into our business model that we can impact on a day-to-day basis.
In 2015, world leaders convened to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – the document which outlines the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) detailing the global community’s next step in ending poverty, fighting inequality and injustice, and tackling climate change for the next 15 years.
The goals were adopted by all 193 Member States, building on decades of work by the UN and provides a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet looking into the future, one that all nations can strive for.
They understand that to end poverty and other deprivations we must develop strategies to improve health and education, reduce inequalities, and achieve sustainable development all whilst tackling climate change and preserving our oceans and forests.
The UN has made the SDGs simple for businesses to adopt and to learn ways of incorporating impacts beneficial to people, the planet and prosperity easy to start impacting the goals.
It is not too late to reverse the harm done to the planet providing that drastic action is taken with every business, and every person, no matter how small the impact making a difference.
It is easy to adopt the initial stages of the SDGs but becoming a truly purpose-lead business with the scope to impact projects on a much larger scale can be more difficult. Not to worry, help is at hand!
We have a number of key Partners to help us with our journey to make sure we can achieve the biggest impact we can and keep us from getting complacent as we endeavour to grow and add new scope to our business.
Support the Goals – will help you get started with the SDGs and will rate your impact potential based on the nature and size of your business. They work with talented researchers from leading Universities to analyse how businesses publicly communicate their support for the Global Goals.
They also research the supply chains of members throughout the year. Research is fully peer-reviewed, and the results are updated annually.
Properah – will help you find your company’s purpose and strategy for implementing the SDGs. They will help provide a customised strategy document to align your business’s core values to the Sustainable Development Goals, translate your greater purpose into action and turn your sustainability and social responsibility commitments into tangible business value.
The SDGs are such an integral part of our business, and the Goals we impact directly as a business are; Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 5: Gender Equality and Goal 8: Decent work & Economic Growth, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 13: Climate Action & Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
We also indirectly impact Goals 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation and Goal 11: Sustainable Cities& Communities thanks to the partnerships and contributions we have made to purpose-lead philanthropic organisations like B1G1, 1% for the Planet & Panathlon.
But we won’t rest there! As a purpose-lead community platformed, we are uniquely positioned to make wider impacts on all of the SDGs thanks to partnering with other Business for Good organisations such as B1G1 and Ecologi which make significant impacts and drawing on best practice expertise of our partners, committed employers, ambassadors and wider community helps us make additional impacts of the SDGs.
Goal 1: No Poverty – Includability is an accredited Living Wage Employer.
Goal 5: Gender Equality – No discrimination in internal recruiting processes.
We have an accessible resource library and webinars available to ensure no gender bias in verified employer practices.
Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth - By providing a platform for job seekers to apply to employers committed to building an inclusive culture by only advertising verified vacancies.
Our 5 Star Verification Process and Includability Committed Employer benefits feature exploratory calls on from partners on Leadership and Governance and Talent Management offering best practice expertise to businesses.
Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities – Diversity and Inclusion is one of the core pillars of our community. We regularly host webinars, resources, employer and employee education seminars, accessible functionality for job seeker applications, and host our monthly Employer Support Groups(ESGs) which help to build knowledge and empower staff to reduce inequalities.
Goal 13: Climate Action – Includability is a pledged carbon neutral business.
Goal 13 & Goal 8 – By implementing an independent 5 Star Verification Process for all Includability Committed Employer registered on our platform. During process, our Sustainability VP, Alice Troiano, will introduce the SDGs to all organisations to build knowledge and awareness.
Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – By building a community free from judgement where people can ask questions safely and build knowledge where companies follow our house rules of engage, collaborate, and inspire. Employers are also required to sign Includability code of ethics to form a strong, peaceful institution.
We make further impacts by leveraging the expertise of our wider community. We encourage collaboration so that standards in diversity & inclusion, mental health & wellbeing, environment & sustainability, and leadership & governance are raised across all sectors.
By publicly displaying our SDG support through the website, social media gifting and our company Impact Report, we can tell our audiences of the impacts we make and why the SDGs benefit us as a business.
We offer a choice of three B1G1 projects for organisations once they become an Includability Committed Employer – an appreciation certificate is then forwarded to them.
At Includability we have supported projects through B1G1 that have impacted every one of the seventeen UN SDGs – the five Goals we have had the greatest impact on as a community so far are below:
All stats taken as of July 2022.
We have made 50,580 direct impacts to the SDGs (as of July2022) as a direct result of our business operations or by donating to Business for Good organisations such as B1G1 and others.
We have leveraged a further 108,272 impacts by members of the Includability Community also creating B1G1 accounts
These are the greatest impacts we are able to definitively measure. We make many more direct and indirect impacts as a result of our community freely interacting with one another to achieve common good.
Due to global circumstances, primarily due to recovering from the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, the goals of the 2030 Agenda have been severely hampered. Goal 1: No Poverty has been severely negatively impacted this year due to the latter events as blockades placed on Ukraine’s large export reserves of grain has taken food away from the world’s most vulnerable at a time when 43 million people are one-step away from famine.
Earlier this year, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development office said the 2030 agenda was “severely off track” in achieving the goals.
The office recommended the UN take three main actions to help rescue the SDG timetable. The UK Called for greater humanitarian and peace operations in Afghanistan and other volatile regions, greater efficiency when the UN operates in the field to avoid duplication in work already achieved, and for strong leadership of the Resident Coordinator and Heads of Agencies on the ground.
The UN believes the sticking to the SDG guide will help us weather the current turbulent times to emerge stronger and better together.
In order to achieve real change, and achieve a new forecast model of growth, the UN is recommending an end to armed conflicts, adopting low-carbon resilient and inclusive development pathways, transform the international financial and debt architecture, and invest in data.
Despite the challenges to the 2030 Agenda timetable, the scope of the UN SDGs is still very much the standard we should be looking to achieve to become more sustainable, inclusive and purposeful as a business.
Aligning with the SDGs has given us a clear strategy to how we impact the world in our business operations and through our philanthropic partnerships. Partnering with data driven, purpose-lead organisations like Prosperah and B1G1 has allowed us to measure our impacts more precisely so we can see which areas we benefit and which we need to target better in future.
It has opened us up to communities of purpose-lead businesses such as B Corp and The Planet Mark where actions speak louder than words and businesses must take substantive action in order to attain their respective accreditations that show they are working to benefit the planet using the SDGs as a base guide.
This is why Includability will continue to support the UNSDGs and we will strive to positively impact as many of the goals as possible.
Signing up for the Includability newsletter can be the first step to creating a more complete society. Periodically we will send our latest articles, events & guides from some of the most respected voices in the industry. We run a no-spam policy so you won't get 100's of unwanted messages from us.
