Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Almost every sustainability report now carries a row of seventeen coloured squares. They are the most recognised badge in corporate sustainability, and the easiest to use without saying anything — a company can tick five of them in a brochure without changing a single number in its operations.
The SDGs are a set of goals for countries, measured by 234 indicators, and only a few of those indicators are things a company can actually move.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals with 169 targets adopted by all UN member states in 2015, to be met by 2030 — from ending poverty to climate action. Companies use them to frame sustainability strategy and reporting; SDG 13 tracks total greenhouse-gas emissions.
What the SDGs are
The Sustainable Development Goals are the world’s shared to-do list for 2030. Heads of state adopted them at the United Nations in New York on 25–27 September 2015, as the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: 17 goals and 169 targets that the Agenda describes as “integrated and indivisible.”
They replaced the eight Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000 to 2015 and were aimed mainly at developing countries. The SDGs are broader in two ways. They apply to every country, rich and poor, and they put environmental goals — climate, oceans, land, energy, consumption — alongside poverty, health, education and equality. The UN groups them under five headings, often called the five Ps: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.
The goals are political commitments, not law. No court enforces them and no company is bound by them. What gives them weight is measurement: each target has one or more official indicators, reported country by country to the UN, and an annual progress report says which targets are on track. That indicator framework is where the SDGs touch emissions accounting most directly.
For businesses, the SDGs are a shared vocabulary. Investors, governments and civil society all recognise the seventeen goals, so companies use them to explain which parts of sustainability they affect. That is useful when it is tied to measurable impact, and empty when it is not — the gap this page spends most of its time on.
Definition at a glance
| What it is | A UN framework of 17 goals and 169 targets for sustainable development |
|---|---|
| Adopted | 25–27 September 2015, by all UN member states, as the 2030 Agenda |
| Deadline | 2030 |
| Measured by | 234 unique indicators (251 listed, as some repeat under several targets), after the March 2026 refinement |
| Who it binds | No one legally. Countries report voluntarily to the UN; companies use the goals as a reference frame |
| Climate goal | SDG 13, Climate action — indicator 13.2.2 is total greenhouse-gas emissions per year |
| Business guide | The SDG Compass (2015), by GRI, the UN Global Compact and WBCSD |
The 17 goals
Each goal has a short name and a number, and the numbers are how they are cited in reports (“SDG 13”). The third column shows where each goal connects to the numbers a carbon accountant works with. Most goals connect only indirectly. Four — 7, 9, 12 and 13 — have official indicators measured in energy or emissions.
| # | Goal | Link to emissions and energy data |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | No poverty | Indirect |
| 2 | Zero hunger | Indirect — agriculture is a major source of methane and nitrous oxide |
| 3 | Good health and well-being | Indirect — air pollution from combustion |
| 4 | Quality education | Indirect |
| 5 | Gender equality | Indirect |
| 6 | Clean water and sanitation | Indirect — wastewater methane |
| 7 | Affordable and clean energy | Direct — renewable share (7.2.1) and energy intensity (7.3.1) |
| 8 | Decent work and economic growth | Indirect — decoupling growth from resource use |
| 9 | Industry, innovation and infrastructure | Direct — CO₂ per unit of value added (9.4.1) |
| 10 | Reduced inequalities | Indirect |
| 11 | Sustainable cities and communities | Indirect — urban air quality, transport, buildings |
| 12 | Responsible consumption and production | Direct — companies publishing sustainability reports (12.6.1) |
| 13 | Climate action | Direct — total greenhouse-gas emissions per year (13.2.2) |
| 14 | Life below water | Indirect — ocean acidification from CO₂ |
| 15 | Life on land | Indirect — deforestation and land-use emissions |
| 16 | Peace, justice and strong institutions | Indirect |
| 17 | Partnerships for the goals | Indirect — finance and technology transfer |
“Indirect” does not mean unimportant. A company’s emissions affect health, food systems and ecosystems, and the goals are designed to be read together. But only the four bold rows have an official indicator that a corporate GHG inventory or energy data can feed straight into.
How the UN defines the climate targets
Target 13.2: “Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.” Indicator 13.2.2: “Total greenhouse gas emissions per year.”
Target 7.2: “By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.” Target 7.3: “By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.” Indicator 7.3.1: “Energy intensity measured in terms of primary energy and GDP.”
Target 9.4 asks countries to “upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable”, measured by indicator 9.4.1: “CO2 emission per unit of value added.”
Target 12.6: “Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle.” Indicator 12.6.1: “Number of companies publishing sustainability reports.”
Two things stand out. First, indicator 13.2.2 is an absolute total in tonnes per year — the same quantity a national inventory reports to the UN climate convention, and the national-scale version of a company’s emissions figure. Second, target 12.6 is the only SDG target written about companies, and its indicator counts reports, not reductions. Publishing a sustainability report advances 12.6 whatever the report says.
Indicator 9.4.1 is a carbon intensity: emissions divided by economic output. A country, a sector or a company can improve it while total emissions still rise, if output grows faster. That is why intensity targets and absolute targets are read side by side, and why science-based targets generally require an absolute cut.
How far off track the world is
The UN assesses progress every year. In the 2025 edition, 139 of the 169 targets had enough data to judge a global trend from the 2015 baseline. The result:
Progress of the 139 assessable SDG targets, 2015 baseline to latest data. Shares sum to 101% because of rounding. Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, United Nations.
On climate, the same report cites UNEP’s finding that global greenhouse-gas emissions reached a record 57.1 GtCO₂e in 2023, and the UN Secretary-General’s foreword notes that 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing the 1.5°C threshold. The quantity behind indicator 13.2.2 — the one most tied to a company’s own numbers — is still rising.
The SDGs did not fail for lack of attention. Five years from the deadline, more than a third of the targets are stalled or in reverse, and the world’s emissions total is still climbing.
How companies use the SDGs
The most widely cited business method is the SDG Compass, published in 2015 by GRI, the UN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. It sets out five steps:
- Understanding the SDGs — learn what the goals and targets ask for.
- Defining priorities — map the company’s positive and negative impacts across its value chain and pick the goals it affects most.
- Goal setting — set specific, measurable company targets linked to those goals.
- Integrating sustainability — build the targets into strategy, operations and incentives.
- Reporting — disclose progress, ideally with the same indicators used for other reporting.
Step two is where most of the value — and most of the abuse — sits. Defining priorities is an impact assessment, close in spirit to the impact materiality half of a double materiality assessment. A company that skips it tends to pick the goals that flatter its existing activities. A company that does it properly usually finds that its largest impacts are in places it would rather not highlight, often its scope 3 emissions.
The UN’s own data show how widespread reporting has become. The SDG Report 2025 notes that 96% of the world’s 250 largest companies by revenue now publish sustainability reports, and that the number of reports grew nearly fourfold between 2016 and 2023. It also finds that companies most often report on emissions, energy efficiency and CO₂ equivalents. By the measure of indicator 12.6.1, corporate reporting is one of the SDG success stories.
SDGs vs reporting standards
The SDGs say what the world is trying to achieve. They do not say how a company should measure or disclose its part in it. That job belongs to reporting standards, which is why a credible SDG claim almost always rests on one of them.
| Question | SDGs | Reporting standards (GHG Protocol, GRI, ESRS, ISSB) |
|---|---|---|
| What they are | Global goals for 2030 | Rules for measuring and disclosing information |
| Written for | Countries | Companies and other organisations |
| Binding? | No | Mandatory where adopted into law (e.g. ESRS under the CSRD); voluntary otherwise |
| Unit of a climate figure | National total tonnes per year (13.2.2) | Company tCO₂e by scope, with method and boundary disclosed |
| Verifiable? | At national level, through UN statistics | Yes — designed for assurance |
| Risk if used alone | “SDG-washing”: goals claimed without evidence | Data without context or purpose |
In practice the two work together. A company measures its emissions under the GHG Protocol, discloses them under GRI or ESRS, and uses the SDGs to explain why those numbers matter beyond the company. GRI and the UN Global Compact have published mappings of business disclosures to SDG targets for exactly this reason.
Worked micro-example
A manufacturer reports the figures below for two years. It wants to say what it contributes to SDGs 7, 9 and 13, using the same quantities the UN indicators measure. All figures are illustrative.
| Measure | Year 1 | Year 2 | SDG indicator it mirrors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 + 2 emissions | 12,000 tCO₂e | 11,400 tCO₂e | 13.2.2 — total emissions |
| Gross value added | $40m | $48m | — |
| Emissions per $m value added | 300 tCO₂e/$m | 237.5 tCO₂e/$m | 9.4.1 — CO₂ per unit of value added |
| Renewable share of electricity | 20% | 45% | 7.2.1 — renewable share |
Absolute emissions fell 5% (12,000 → 11,400). Intensity fell 20.8% (300 → 237.5) because output grew 20% at the same time. Both numbers are true; only the absolute one is what SDG 13 counts. An honest SDG claim reports the 5% first and the 20.8% second, and names the scopes and the method behind both.
Common mistakes
- SDG-washing. Displaying goal icons with no target, indicator or data behind them. It is a form of greenwashing, and regulators treat vague sustainability claims as misleading.
- Cherry-picking goals. Choosing the goals a company already looks good on, instead of those where its impact is largest. A priority assessment exists to stop this.
- Treating the SDGs as a reporting standard. They contain no measurement rules. Emissions need the GHG Protocol; disclosures need GRI, ESRS or ISSB.
- Quoting intensity as if it were a reduction. Falling emissions per dollar can hide rising total emissions. SDG 13’s indicator is the absolute total.
- Counting only positive contributions. The SDG Compass asks for negative impacts too. A product that helps SDG 7 can still harm SDG 15 through its supply chain.
- Assuming the goals bind companies. They do not. Obligations come from law such as the CSRD, not from the 2030 Agenda.
Turn SDG ambitions into measured impact: start with what is material, then measure the emissions behind it.
Frequently asked questions
The Sustainable Development Goals are 17 global goals with 169 targets, adopted by all UN member states in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They cover poverty, hunger, health, education, equality, water, energy, work, industry, cities, consumption, climate, oceans, land, peace and partnerships, and are meant to be achieved by 2030.
SDG 13, Climate action. Its targets cover resilience to climate hazards, integrating climate measures into national policy, and education on climate change. Its indicator 13.2.2 is total greenhouse-gas emissions per year. SDG 7 (clean energy) and SDG 9 (industry, with indicator 9.4.1 on CO₂ per unit of value added) also carry climate-relevant indicators.
No. The SDGs are a political commitment by governments, not a treaty, and they place no legal duties on companies. Countries report progress to the UN voluntarily. Legal obligations on climate come from instruments such as the Paris Agreement and national laws, including corporate reporting rules like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
Most follow the SDG Compass: understand the goals, define priorities through an impact assessment, set measurable targets, integrate them into the business, and report progress. The numbers themselves come from established standards — the GHG Protocol for emissions, and GRI, ESRS or ISSB for disclosure — with each metric linked to the SDG target it supports.
No. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 found that only 35% of assessable targets are on track or making moderate progress, nearly half are moving too slowly, and 18% have regressed below their 2015 baseline. Global greenhouse-gas emissions, the quantity tracked by SDG 13, are still at record highs.
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