With the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the 2030 agenda, the UN has launched ambitious goals for the global community. There are great economic incentives for companies to address the SDGs.

Companies that contribute to achieving the SDGs with their products or services or at least visibly minimize their negative impact on the environment and society are considered good investments. They are exposed to lower regulatory risks, have to shoulder lower transformation costs, are less prone to disruption and, in addition, benefit to some extent from the new market opportunities with offers geared towards the SDGs.

A few examples: Major investment and pension funds have announced that they will include the SDGs in their investment decisions, for example ABP (number 5 in the world with US $ 500 billion in assets under management). And MSCI has introduced the Sustainable Impact Index, a stock index that identifies companies that generate at least 50 percent of their sales from one of five themes derived from the SDGs.

To underpin their decisions, investors need reliable data on the impact that companies have on the SDGs, either directly or via their value chain.