Benchmark: 100% ALIGNMENT WITH THE CFO PRINCIPLES ON INTEGRATED SDG INVESTMENTS AND FINANCE

The material was prepared by:
Ketevan Botchorishvili
Manager of Accelerator programs and Academy
UN Global Compact Network Georgia

As we approach the 2030 Agenda deadline, companies are increasingly looked at to be part of the solution. UN Global Compact has a unique window of opportunity to develop business strategies that fully integrate the SDGs and help build more inclusive and sustainable societies.

SDG Ambition is an Accelerator programme that aims to challenge and support participating companies of the UN Global Compact to set ambitious corporate targets aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and accelerate integration into core business and performance management. SDG Ambition enables companies to move beyond incremental progress and step-up transformative change — unlocking business value, building business resilience, and enabling long-term growth.

The SDG Ambition Benchmarks are a set of absolute, measurable goals grounded in established reporting requirements. They translate the SDGs for business, focusing on where business can drive the greatest impact. These benchmarks are applicable across all industries, and their implementation is adaptable, allowing companies to define goals and targets in the areas that are most material for their industry context.

100% Alignment with the CFO Principles on Integrated SDG Investments and Finance is the 13th published benchmark in the SDG Ambition program. The benchmark was developed by the UNGC and Accenture in tandem with subject matter experts from the CFO Coalition.

The audience of the benchmark is financial decision makers – those who have the capability to influence finance and investment decisions – within corporations operating in any industry. Companies of various sizes can adopt this benchmark, but their path to integration will differ due to variations in scale, resources, and organizational capabilities.

Companies with higher maturity in the dimension of sustainable corporate finance can use it to gain deeper insight into how they can harness technological systems to enhance the effectiveness of their initiatives and elevate their capabilities in finance-related ESG data collection and reporting.
Companies with lower maturity can use it as a starting point to craft their impact strategy, generate pathways and actions to achieve their long-term goal, and convey their vision to stakeholders.

The benchmark does not align itself with any one taxonomy. Companies should leverage the taxonomies that are most relevant and/or mandated for them (e.g., EU taxonomy) when defining and measuring their investment and finance decisions. Companies should not limit their actions to align solely with taxonomies, as taxonomies do not cover all SDGs.

The CFO Coalition developed the CFO Principles to engage the global CFO community to support the UNGC’s Ten Principles & leverage corporate investments and finance toward the realization of the SDGs. The CFO Coalition for the SDGs has outlined four Principles that detail how the private sector can translate ambitious commitments into corporate investments that transform business models, enable longer-term strategies and maximize impact on the SDGs.
This Ambition Benchmark is a guide for financial decision makers to adopt these Principles to reshape the future of corporate investments and finance as a catalyst for growth, value creation and social impact.