How Corporates Can Select the Right SDGs and Indicators

When a company decides to align with the Sustainable Development Goals, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the challenge. Seventeen global goals with 169 targets might seem too ambitious for any single organization. But here’s the truth: choosing the right SDGs isn’t about tackling everything-it’s about finding where your business can create the most meaningful impact. Think of it as matching your company’s unique strengths, resources, and risks with global challenges that desperately need solutions.

Understanding your sector’s sustainability footprint 🔗

Every industry leaves a different mark on society and the environment. A coal mining company faces entirely different sustainability challenges compared to an IT services firm or a pharmaceutical manufacturer. That’s why the first step in selecting the right SDGs is taking an honest look at where your business creates the most significant risks and opportunities.

Sector-specific challenges are becoming increasingly clear-food and agriculture companies grapple with pollinator decline and soil health, while extractive industries face scrutiny over land use and habitat disruption. Understanding these nuances helps companies focus their efforts where they matter most.

Consider a soft drink manufacturer. On the surface, they might proudly support goals like gender equality, clean water, and decent work. But if they ignore their direct impact on public health through high sugar content, they’re missing the most critical goal: good health and well-being. Companies that cherry-pick convenient goals while ignoring their core negative impacts undermine the entire purpose of SDG alignment.

Conducting a materiality assessment 🔗

The process begins with what experts call a materiality assessment-essentially asking which sustainability issues matter most to your business and stakeholders. Pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk conducted a comprehensive materiality assessment across all 169 SDG targets before settling on Good Health and Well-Being and Responsible Consumption and Production as their focus areas. This wasn’t random-these goals aligned perfectly with both their business operations and their capacity to drive change.

A technology company might prioritize Quality Education and Industry Innovation, while an apparel manufacturer should seriously consider Decent Work and Economic Growth alongside Responsible Consumption. The key is identifying where your operations intersect with pressing social and environmental challenges.

Localizing global goals to your national context 🔗

One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to SDGs. What works in Scandinavia might not be relevant in Southeast Asia. That’s where localization comes in-the process of adapting global goals to fit national and regional priorities.

National governments develop their own indicators and targets based on the global SDG framework, reflecting local development priorities and challenges. Countries are encouraged to adapt global targets and indicators to national conditions, creating challenging yet achievable benchmarks that reflect their unique circumstances.

Aligning with national development priorities 🔗

Smart companies pay attention to these national indicators. Why? Because they reveal where government investment, policy support, and public attention are concentrated. If your country has prioritized renewable energy access as a key target under Affordable and Clean Energy, aligning your CSR initiatives with this goal creates opportunities for partnerships with government agencies, access to incentives, and stronger community support.

French food giant Danone demonstrates this approach beautifully. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all strategy globally, they focus on nutrition and wellness goals tailored to specific regions. In Cameroon and Ivory Coast, where anemia is a critical concern, they reformulated their Phosphatine brand to provide 70% of children’s iron needs. This contextual approach makes global goals tangible and measurable at the local level.

Understanding how SDGs provide a framework for local development policy helps companies identify where they can contribute most effectively while supporting broader national development strategies.

Building a strategic CSR plan around SDGs 🔗

Once you’ve identified relevant goals and understood your national context, the real work begins: translating these commitments into strategic, measurable action. This is where many companies stumble-they announce ambitious SDG commitments but fail to integrate them into core business strategy.

Prioritizing for maximum impact 🔗

The first strategic principle is simple: you cannot meaningfully pursue all 17 goals. Companies must identify the SDGs most relevant to their strategic goals-pursuing too many runs the risk of spreading resources too thin and diluting employee commitment.

Danish toy maker LEGO focuses on just two goals: Responsible Consumption and Production, and Quality Education. Why these two? Because they align perfectly with LEGO’s core belief in the transformative power of play in education and early childhood development. This tight focus allows LEGO to create measurable impact rather than making superficial contributions across multiple fronts.

Creating measurable targets 🔗

Vague commitments don’t drive change. Your SDG strategy needs concrete, quantifiable targets that can be tracked over time. Spanish electricity producer Iberdrola identified Affordable and Clean Energy and Climate Action as their priority goals, then backed this commitment with specific investments in renewable energy, digitalization, and electric mobility infrastructure.

When setting targets, align them with your company’s existing strengths and capabilities. A telecommunications company should leverage its infrastructure and connectivity expertise toward goals like Industry Innovation and Infrastructure. A pharmaceutical company naturally contributes to Good Health and Well-Being but should also address accessibility and affordability challenges in underserved regions.

Partnering for scale 🔗

No company can achieve SDG targets alone. The complexity of the SDGs exceeds the reach of any single organization, making collaboration with governments, NGOs, and other businesses essential.

Novo Nordisk’s Cities Changing Diabetes program exemplifies this collaborative approach. The company works with over 100 local partners to understand the root causes of urban diabetes and develop solutions that address systemic issues related to healthy living in cities. This isn’t just corporate charity-it’s strategic partnership that leverages multiple organizations’ expertise and resources toward a shared goal.

Innovating your business model 🔗

Sometimes achieving SDG targets requires fundamental changes in how you do business. The SDGs will never be achieved if companies continue business as usual-firms must find novel solutions using fewer inputs, cleaner technologies, and innovative business models.

This might mean rethinking product design for circularity, developing new revenue streams from sustainability services, or fundamentally altering supply chain relationships. The companies making the biggest SDG impact aren’t just doing good-they’re finding new ways to create value while addressing global challenges.

Measuring and reporting your progress 🔗

Once you’ve selected your SDGs and built your strategic plan, consistent measurement becomes critical. The challenge is that measuring SDG contributions isn’t straightforward-these are complex, interconnected goals without simple metrics.

Start with indicators that directly relate to your chosen goals. If you’re focused on Climate Action, track your emissions reductions across all scopes. For Quality Education, measure the number of people reached through educational programs and demonstrate learning outcomes. The key is establishing baseline data, setting interim milestones, and reporting progress transparently.

Many companies struggle with this. Research shows that while 72% of companies publicly mention SDGs in their reports, only 20% set quantitative targets, and just 8% report quantitative measures showing progress. Don’t be part of that 92% making claims without proof.

What do you think? Looking at your own organization or sector, which SDGs represent both your greatest risks and your biggest opportunities for positive impact? How might you balance addressing negative impacts with amplifying positive contributions?

References

1. https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/06/24/top-10-corporate-sustainability-priorities-for-2025/
2. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/07/companies-can-make-the-uns-sdgs-their-own-heres-how/
3. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/unct-toolkit/SDG-localization-and-implementation/