Sustainable Development Goals — “worse than useless” or a handy tool for a conscious consumer?

Just before the Sustainable Development Goals were signed off, The Economist magazine called them “worse than useless”, “a mess” and “a distraction”… So why more and more businesses boast about their contribution to the SDGs?

First things first: What are the SDGs?

In 2015, the UN and other organisations drew 169 global targets: from reducing poverty and hunger, to increasing gender equality and fighting climate change; that they grouped into 17 categories. Countries then signed the goals off and pledged to work towards achieving them by 2030 — and so did individual businesses and organisations.

What are the main criticisms?

Well, some people agree with the Economist and claim that SDGs are too ambitious to be achieved by 2030 and that they just distract from real problems, because they don’t offer any data or practical solutions. Others argue that they fail to highlight the complex relationship between the developing world and the West.

Should you even care?

Despite those drawbacks listed above, SDGs have been praised as especially useful for businesses and consumers. Why? They provide a universal roadmap for progress across different industries, be it fashion, food or flying.

When you shop, you probably already go for businesses that have a higher purpose and more ambitious goals than just earning profit. You want to know if they share your values, e.g are vegan, or care about the same things that you do, like reducing plastic pollution.

Imagine that those favourite brands - your organic jeans manufacturer and your recycled toilet paper subscription service - all aligned their business goals with the SDGs. What’s especially important, they would also use unified metrics to track their progress. You’d be surprised how many brands don’t measure their impact at all, let alone set goals to improve it.

As a consumer, you’d know those brands belong to the right “club” and are worth choosing — you wouldn’t have to spend hours doing research trying to make sure you’re buying from an accredited source.

The more businesses join that club and work towards the same goals, the higher the chance that we will complete them. Probably not by 2030, because progress was significantly slowed by the COVID- 19 pandemic, but hopefully not long after.

Setting goals is an essential element of every strategy. When our aim is as big and complex as having a better, safer and cleaner planet for all species, then the Sustainable Development Goals, even if very ambitious, can be used to show us direction and unify our efforts. The key to success is to set them, track them and implement actions to achieve them on every level — by the governments, businesses and individuals.

Only then they will prove useful and not a distraction.