UN SDG wtf?

Why we are UN SDG people.

“What is your sustainability policy?”

“We don’t have one”

“You what?”

Actually, we have a UN SDG policy. And we specifically, try to avoid sustainability as a topic. As we try to avoid CSR, ESG and D&I and many others.

I’ve experienced a few raised eyebrows on this topic this week and it occurs to me that we need to explain our stance again and in more detail.

The story starts when The Honey Partnership LLP was founded in the UK as a partnership company on 6 October 2014, and we wrote our first policies deliberately replacing the word “he” wherever it appeared with the word “she” as an act of positive discrimination. We also wrote our maternity policy to also be a paternity policy so that we would afford equal rights to both parents. We upgraded the legal list of nine protected characteristics (to include military veterans and former offenders / prisoners as we felt they experienced discrimination which we could play a part in stopping).

We took quite a few other steps too in our first policies to make the statement loud and clear that we held values which we might call “progressive”.

We wanted, from the outset, that our company would play a part in “making the world a better place”, recognising there were some societal wrongs (such as discrimination, among many others) which we could right.

Almost exactly one year after we founded, the UN created the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and we subsequently chose the language of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to be our universal language to best describe this sentiment and spirit. I strongly recommend that you visit the UN SDG web page, dive into this year’s Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 or watch the video of the report (it’s 5 mins and it’s dull, but it covers the areas) or read the FAQs on the report. (One of the best videos about the UN SDGs is the 2020 34-minute “Nations United” masterpiece from Richard Curtis)

Trouble is that the UN SDGs are not simple. Quite the opposite. They comprise 17 goals containing 169 separate targets measured by 231 unique indicators in the areas of: poverty > hunger > health and well-being > education > gender equality > clean water and sanitation > affordable and clean energy > decent work and economic growth > industry, innovation and infrastructure > reduced inequalities > sustainable cities and communities > responsible consumption and production > climate action > life below water > life on land > peace, justice and strong institutions > global partnerships. Together, they are much more than any one person can realistically get their head around.

The ultra-brilliant, amazing, incredible thing about these 17 goals, 169 targets, 231 indicators and the countless words of aspiration and encouragement that they contain, is that they were unanimously approved by 193 countries. One hundred and ninety three. The language of hope and endeavour is universal. We can champion these goals in each country we operate and with every nationality of person who works with us.

I can’t imagine a more powerful agenda to follow, than an agenda like the UN SDGs that have been painstakingly developed over a long time, with passion and care and consideration, and then agreed across the board.

It’s not a fad, it’s not transient. It’s relatively permanent (until 2030 at least) and its universal.

Our policy with regard to the 17 UN SDG goals is that we will do our best to make progress and help all the people and organisations we work with also to make progress.

And this is powered by the most important principle that each individual person without our company determines what matters most to them and we as a company then support them in making their own progress.

Let me repeat: the organisation supports the individual.

This principle often takes time to process because the conventional wisdom is the opposite.

Conventional wisdom is that an organisation has values A and B, and an individual who works in that organisation signs up to A and B. Within the UN SDG framework, we push the decision for what matters most to each individual to determine for themselves and then our Line Managers assume the responsibility on behalf of the organisation for helping the individual deliver on that decision.

So the UN SDGs provide a range of areas where any member of our organisation can find a genuine connection to something which matters deeply to them. It could be diversity, equality, inclusion, disability, social responsibility, violence against women, veterans rights, homelessness, nature and climate. It could be with movements and organisations such as Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion or Water Aid, it could be a local charity like Selby Hands of Hope or a global one like Greenpeace.

In summary, each individual in our organisation needs to uncover and declare their own personal passion for progress. They will then (almost definitely) find an area within the UN SDG’s 17 goals where they can articulate and structure and express that passion and in so doing advance themselves and others in that area. And our organisation rallies behind them to advance their personal goals - expressed in their Personal Development Plans - with them.

The UN SDGs are complex - but they need to be so that each individual ends up not having to compromise on their own person passions and drivers and can see how working with Honey helps them advance not only their creativity, craft and career, but the wider things of life beyond themselves.

We embrace the UN SDG complexity so that each person can find their own simplicity.