Making global goals aligning with the SDGs

Food & agriculture

Corporate goal setting

Environment

The world today is facing unprecedented, interconnected environmental challenges in areas including climate change, clean water, ocean health and biodiversity. New corporate efforts are needed to increase stewardship of natural resources, implement innovative solutions, and contribute to sustainable development.

To accelerate progress, Peoples Planet has developed several frameworks for companies to embed sustainability into their strategy and take action to secure a resilient future. Our efforts address the linkages among various environmental issues — climate, water, ocean — as well as the social and governance dimensions. In this Decade of Action, our goal is to help businesses scale up impact towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the ambitious targets set in the Paris Agreement.

This year’s COP26 represents a major milestone as the world looks to recover better from the global pandemic and implement the transformative change necessary to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Collective action will be critical and we call on businesses to assess environmental risks and opportunities, set and deliver ambitious environmental targets and adopt responsible practices for a transition to the net-zero, resilient economy.

Corporate goal setting Aligning strategic goals and priorities

When your company’s broader goals are in sync with sustainability priorities, it creates a unified direction—driving positive results for both your business and the planet. Discover how to set bold yet realistic sustainability targets.

Leadership means taking a stand on important public issues and influencing the policies that drive change. To make a real impact, it’s essential to align your government affairs efforts with your sustainability strategy. Explore ways to champion public policies that address climate action and fight corruption.

People planet are working tirelessly to support business—and it’s crucial that sustainability efforts reach both the top and bottom of the corporate structure, from the Board of Directors and General Counsel to the supply chain. Despite their importance, these key areas often remain overlooked when embedding sustainability into core business practices.

To close this gap, We have created a roadmap that engages all parts of the organization—from R&D and HR to Marketing, Supply Chain, and IT—ensuring sustainability becomes a shared responsibility across every function.

Education

Children’s rights are human rights. Safeguarding these rights helps build the strong, well-educated communities that are vital to creating a stable, inclusive and productive business environment. Respecting and supporting children’s rights engages business in both preventing harm, for instance by eliminating child labour, and actively safeguard children’s interests in their workplaces, marketplaces and communities.

By integrating respect and support for children’s rights into their core strategies and operations, companies can strengthen their existing sustainability initiatives while generating benefits for their business.

Such efforts can build reputation, improve risk management and secure their social license to operate. Considering how products and services can better meet children’s needs can also be a source of innovation and help create new markets. Furthermore, promoting youth employment, for those above the minimum age of employment helps ensure that the next generation has the skills a business needs to prosper and conditions to make stable and productive societies.

Food & agriculture

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in a world where food insecurity and hunger present an enormous global challenge. The world’s population is expected to grow to nine billion by 2050 and demand on global food systems intensifies every day. However, transforming our food and agriculture systems to make them sustainable, resilient and inclusive will deliver access to healthy and nutritious foods, help create livelihoods for small-scale producers and processors, and help protect ecosystems and combat climate change. In this context, business has become a critical partner in designing and delivering effective, scalable and practical solutions for food security and sustainable agriculture. Every actor along the agriculture supply chain, including farmers, producers, traders, retailers, investors and consumers has a critical role to play to establish sustainable food systems that advance food security, protect the environment and ensure economic opportunity. The vision of a world without hunger is ambitious. And it cannot be achieved in isolation. Food security and sustainable agriculture call for all businesses, large or small, to conduct responsible business and for responsible action and leadership from all actors in society.

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations laid out a path to eradicate hunger. The UN has scaled up its efforts to work with governments, business, academia and civil society to galvanize the sound policies, actions and leadership that will enable the transformations required to create inclusive, resilient and sustainable agriculture and food systems that deliver for people, planet and prosperity.

Peoples Planet is committed to drive business engagement in the global effort to advance food security and sustainable agriculture. In support of this goal, our work is focused on the key pillars food and agriculture, which are aligned with the five elements of the Zero Hunger Challenge: (1) Sustainable Food Systems; (2) Rural Poverty; (3) Loss and Waste of Food; (4) Access to Adequate Food and Healthy Diets; and (5) Ending Malnutrition.

It is also important to mention that the Committee on World Food Security Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment offer a soft law instrument to address a range of environmental, social and economic issues. While the Food and Agriculture Business Principles provide a voluntary framework to advance the positive impact business can have on food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture and to engage in principle-based collaboration with the governments, civil society and other stakeholders.

Climate Change

We are at a Code Red for Humanity to confront the climate emergency. Climate change is exacerbating risks and affecting health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, biodiversity and economic growth while inequalities continue to deepen. Climate breakdown is no longer a distant threat - it is already affecting lives and livelihoods, especially among the most vulnerable in the Global South.

Global temperatures are already up 1.1°C and the 2021 Emissions Gap Report shows that with the present nationally determined contributions and other firm commitments of countries around the world, we are on track for a catastrophic global temperature rise of around 2.7°C by the end of the century.

Our Work

Private sector climate action and leadership are going to be critical to the transition to a net-zero, resilient future by 2050. Businesses have a key role to play in sending strong market signals and scaling innovative solutions to build trust and present credible plans towards a zero-carbon economy, do their part to increase society’s resilience and unlock climate finance, while advocating for a green and just recovery.

Companies can lead the transition and take ambitious action by engaging with us.

We help, shape and define business leadership on critical issues such as the inequalities deepened by climate change and potential opportunities by engaging companies on resilience, health, and a just transition; social dialogue, good jobs and ESG implications for workers and communities; and inspire continuous performance improvement across sectors. It will also address key business challenges and identify good practice across sectors and regions.

With more than 2200 companies taking climate action aligned with the Paris Agreement, of which over 1000 companies have approved science-based targets, as of December 2021.

Companies and financial institutions are urged to aim for the highest level of ambition in their target setting and commit to set a long-term science-based target to reach net-zero value chain GHGs emissions by no later than 2050. Companies adopting the SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard will be required to set both near- and long-term science-based targets across all scopes. These companies will also be recognized as part of the Business Ambition for 1.5°C and the Race to Zero campaigns.

Peoples Planet mobilizes business leaders and convenes the annual high-level meetings on climate change at COP, inviting senior executives of business, industry, finance, civil society, the United Nations and Government to ramp up corporate action

Water &Sanitation

Global water challenges, such as water scarcity and pollution, are having an increasingly negative impact on businesses. Now more than ever, companies need to assess their water performance and the watersheds in which they operate in order to address these challenges and ultimately stay in business.

Each river basin is unique, but there are a number of water trends that are occurring in many parts of the world. Freshwater consumption worldwide has more than doubled since World War II and is expected to rise another 25 percent by 2030. More than one-third of the world’s population – roughly 2.4 billion people – live in water-stressed countries and by 2025 the number is expected to rise to two-thirds. Declining water quality is an acute problem around the world due to agricultural runoff, industrial wastewater, improper disposal of human waste, and many other issues. Climate change is affecting the hydrologic cycle, leading to more frequent extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods.

Water scarcity, pollution, climate change, and other problematic global water trends pose major challenges to businesses now and will continue to do so in the years ahead. Water-related business risks are generally placed in three broad categories:

Physical risk – Relates to water quantity (scarcity and flooding) and water quality that is unfit for use (pollution)
Reputational risk – Relates to the impact on a company’s brand and can influence customer purchasing decisions
Regulatory risk – Relates to the capacity of government to manage water effectively and sustainability

Water stewardship helps companies identify and manage water-related business risks and allows them to contribute to and help enable more sustainable management of shared freshwater resources. Stewardship also reduces operational costs; protects the company from ensuing water stress; and improves the company’s image in the eyes of consumers, investors, and nearby communities.

Water stewardship offers a comprehensive and dynamic framework that allows companies to manage these risks, while seizing the many opportunities related to water. It asks companies not only to ensure their operations are efficient and clean, but that companies actively promote sustainable water management in the river basins in which they operate.

Children under 18 years old account for almost one third of the world’s population and in many countries, children and youth make up almost one half of the national population. Children are among the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society and are rarely consulted about how communities make decisions affecting them directly.

Business, whether small or large, interacts with and impacts the lives of children both directly and indirectly. Children are key stakeholders of business – as consumers, family members of employees, young workers, and as future employees and business leaders. At the same time, children are key members of the communities and environments in which business operates. There is a diversity of ways in which business affects children. Business can impact the lives of children through their products and services, supply chains, marketing methods and distribution practices, as well as through their investments in local communities.

ABOUT US

PEOPLE'S PLANET is an inspiring environmental initiative that aims to inhibit and reverse environmental degradation while promoting sustainable living. The project's first phase seeks to create 20% additional green cover in the southern states of India through the planting of ten lakhs tree saplings with extensive people's participation. This project is a substantial effort in community building, encouraging supportive relationships between urban and rural societies, government, and industry to shape the course of the world.

The program highlights include a holistic approach to environmental restoration, promoting strategies for sustainable use and management of the land, and being rooted in rural culture, environment, and socio-economic sustainability.