By becoming a signatory to the UN Global Compact, you are sending a strong message to your customers and stakeholders that you understand the importance of going beyond business as usual and that you value the fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human and labour rights, the environment and anti-corruption.
About the UN Global Compact
Launched in 2000, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) was a call to companies around the world to align their strategies and operations with the ten universal principles in the areas of human and labour rights, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With more than 9455 signatory companies, from 162 countries, the UNGC is the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative.
The UNGC is a framework that is both a policy platform and a practical framework for companies that are committed to sustainability and responsible business practices.
Being a signatory gives you a competitive advantage
Over the last few years, a lot of our clients’ customers have started requesting more than just product ecolabelling certification (GECA, Global GreenTag and AFRDI GreenTick).
We are seeing now that sustainability requirements for businesses are aligning with corporate social responsibility. This is being driven by major construction companies and large corporations. There is mounting pressure on businesses to ensure that they address adverse human rights AND impacts linked to their supply chains, as well as environmental impacts.
Corporations want to partner with sustainable and ethical businesses and are conducting supply chain due diligence to mitigate risk of human and labour rights abuses. These corporations want to ensure that their suppliers (product manufacturers) are addressing environmental issues, that they have workplace health and safety systems in place and that they have policies and procedures to address human and labour issues.
By becoming a signatory to the UN Global Compact you are giving your clients assurance that you are addressing the 10 UNGC guiding principles. There are a number of Australian companies that are signatories to the UN Global Compact, including Westpac, Com Bank, NAB, ANZ, Lendlease, GPT, GHD and Stocklands.
What’s involved in becoming a signatory
The first step involves your director signing a statement of commitment addressing the 10 principles and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The UN Global Compact has a huge amount of resources to assist you in taking action. These resources include a library with guides, assessment tools and webinars. We suggest you start with the UNGC assessment tool, as this will give you an idea of how to start addressing the 10 guiding principles. You can plan the year ahead considering what is most important to your organisation and where the greatest risk of human and labour rights issues lie (i.e. potentially in your supply chain and with suppliers who manufacture inhigh risk countries). Part of this process will be conducting human rights due diligence to understand where there is the potential for adverse human rights impacts.
At the end of 12 months, your organisation is required to produce an annual Communication on Progress (CoP) report, which will be uploaded to the UNGC website. The CoP reports the work you have done to address the 10 principles in the previous 12 months. The report needs to be submitted annually.
The cost for becoming a signatory is minimal and the UN Global Compact has a HUGE amount of resources to assist you through this process.
The UNGC is not an auditable standard – it is based on self-disclosure.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Being a signatory gives your customers assurance that you understand the importance of sustainable and ethical business practices.
- A commitment to addressing the 10 guiding principles is essential from the TOP DOWN
- Implementing the UNGC can be difficult and complex, time and resources will be required
- Planning is an essential element of implementing the 10 guiding principles
- UN Global Compact provides a HUGE amount of resources to assist with the implementation
- Cost of becoming a signatory is minimal for small to medium sized companies
How we can help
There is a services page on the Sustainable Business Matters website dedicated to the UN Global Compact
For more information on how we can help support you in becoming a signatory to the UN Global compact