[This is a replica of a collaborative article written in conjunction with The Æternals.]
We’re sure you’ve seen — sustainability and ESG have increasingly gained traction, regardless of the sectors and industries you find yourself in. While organisations naturally hope to play a part in this collective strive towards a better future, it can sometimes seem like a herculean task to navigate through the intricacies of actually getting there. Furthermore, the popular mindset of a lot of these organisations is often geared towards traditional corporate social responsibility, rather than display an understanding of how to embed sustainability into the new narratives of impact amidst the present market dynamics.
But don’t worry, we can get there incrementally. Let’s look at how the SDGs can give us some direction and guide this process.
The UN SDGs
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) are a set of 17 global goals adopted by the United Nations Global Assembly as part of their 2030 Agenda, under which 169 targets are subsumed. In a nutshell, they aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity, among other things.
The significance here is that it functions as a blueprint for governments, civil society, the private sector, individuals, etc. to work towards the common goal, ie. global development efforts for a better future for all. It does this in several ways:
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Provides a common framework to guide and measure progress Catalyses action and cooperation (eg. building partnerships and coalitions, creating knowledge bases, leveraging resources to accelerate progress)
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Prioritises efforts on the most pressing global issues
So what?
What does this mean if you’re trying to incorporate it into your project? Let’s boil it down to 6 steps:
1) Identify which goals and targets are most relevant to the project
Assess the potential impacts of your project on the scale of sustainable development. Does your project push for economic growth, social inclusion, environmental protection, or something else?
To get a better idea consult with your stakeholders to better understand their priorities and concerns, and consider the local context in which your project will be implemented.
2) Use it as a guide to plan how your project will contribute to achieving these goals and targets
The SDGs can act as a guide to inform decision-making when planning, designing, implementing, and monitoring the project. Specifically, the targets under each UN SDG can serve as helpful metrics to refer to when considering your project’s targets, indicators for measuring progress, and developing strategies to achieve your goals.
eg. if your project is focused on protecting, restoring, and promoting the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems (SDG 15), you could
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Include targets related to the conservation and restoration of ecosystems
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Raise awareness about the importance of your cause by circulating thought leadership and hosting public events
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Partner with or support organisations working on-the-ground
Most importantly, ensure that your project is aligned with the broader goals of the UN SDGs, and is making progress towards achieving them.
3) Considering potential unintended consequences
We are firm believers that constantly thinking through potential unintended consequences is a crucial step at every stage of building a truly sustainable, innovative, and impactful project. In this regard, the SDGs act both as a checklist for what you should be doing, and targets you can strive towards.
For instance, if your project involves the use of technology to boost financial inclusion (SDGs 1, 8, 9), are you finding people where they are and designing user-friendly solutions (SDG 10)? If the solution involves significant energy consumption and data, what strategies are you using to lower consumption, digital waste, and carbon emissions (SDGs 7, 12, 13)? In other words, are you attempting to achieve certain goals and targets at the disproportionate expense of others?
4) Promote transparency and accountability
At a time when impact-washing and greenwashing claims are particularly prevalent (and damaging), this one’s a no-brainer. Leave no doubt in people’s minds that you are intentional about contributing to meaningful sustainability.
This will entail:
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Measuring and reporting on your progress toward achieving your SDG targets
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Ensuring the project is making meaningful contributions and identifying areas where additional efforts are needed to achieve your SDGs
5) Engage with your community
Building a project that is aligned with the SDGs is no solo endeavour. Engage with the different stakeholders, especially your community, and find out what they think about what you’re doing, and whether they have any input that you can take into account. Keep them in the loop, and be open and responsive to questions and feedback.
This will help ensure that your project is truly aligned with
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the values and goals of your community; as well as
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the SDGs, meeting the needs of those they are intended to empower
6) Continuously evaluate and improve
Building a project is an ongoing process. Continue to evaluate and improve your project over time to ensure that it is having the desired impact and aligned with the SDGs.
Here’s how we do it:
Play to Protect — Pioneering Gamified Regenerative Finance (ReFi)
With the increasing popularity of NFTs comes the responsibility to use this technology in a way that is sustainable and in line with the UN SDGs
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Goal 13: Climate Action
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Goal 15: Life on Land
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Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
The Æternals combines 3D generative digital art, interactive gamification, and metamorphic change, with transparent and thoughtfully measured impact objectives through blockchain infrastructure. The underlying value of the NFT comes from a collector’s proof-of-impact toward rainforest protection, with metamorphic secondary sale market value changing in response to collectors’ proof-of-impact. We are an experimental example of a new impactful asset class and financial instrument that can enhance the nature of self-sovereignty and fund/ sustain global social/public goods without relying on traditional fundraising methods. In addition to directing 55% of minting profits to Rainforest Partnership for reduced dependency on public donations, 1% secondary sale royalty will also go toward carbon negativity, leveraging digital innovation to fight climate change.
We’ve thought long and hard about how best to mitigate the negative impact that could be derived from our project. This is why we’re partnering with Tresorio to achieve 100% carbon efficiency by reducing our carbon footprint from an estimated 48 tons down to 6.9 tons, recycling our heat to convert it into hot water, which we donated to social housing units across France.
To show our intention and commitment to transparency and ESG compliance, we’re also pioneers in developing a custom impact measurement framework for our project, and of “Build in Public” on Twitter. Of course, we recognise that there is no perfect way to do this, but we’re constantly learning, questioning, and welcoming feedback and opinions.
Finally, in an effort to continuously contribute to this dialogue, we’re also proud to be a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Crypto Sustainability Coalition, a working group dedicated to re-imagining economic technology in line with global climate action needs.
Closing thoughts
If we hope to hit the UN SDG targets by 2030, we’re in a crunch. It is so important, now more than ever, that we all come together as a purpose-driven collective to embed sustainability as a holistic strategy in all that we do.
There is no single perfect recipe for true social innovation, but the UN SDGs provide a crucial framework that should not be missed as a consideration when building a project in today’s world. Through its application, global development efforts can prioritise and focus on the issues that should demand the most of our attention to build towards a more sustainable and equitable future.
For more information, see:
Still not 100% confident? Look at what our parent organisation Emerge is doing with their Organisational Readiness Assessment (ORA) and see where you stand.
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