As part of a final master’s project, an analysis has been carried out of where small and medium-sized enterprises stand in relation to the sustainable development model, with the aim of highlighting and promoting the role these organisations play within it.
The concept of sustainable development emerged from a historical process through which societies and their governments came to recognise that the model of development pursued after the Second World War had failed, and that both the formula for growth and our way of life must be adapted — in search of a model of development that is responsible towards, and in sympathy with, the planet and humanity as a whole.
Companies, whatever their size, play an important part in a sustainable development model whose core and operational goal is the SDGs. That means treating CSR as a genuine commitment: a tool for striking a balance between financial return and the management of social and environmental impact. In this sense, the private business sector has been recognised as a significant actor in delivering the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
SMEs and the 2030 Agenda
SMEs account for more than 90% of all companies worldwide. Conscious of the role they play in global development, the United Nations included references to these businesses, directly and indirectly, when drawing up the 2030 Agenda, building them into several of the SDG targets.
Applying CSR within SMEs can prove more natural and more dynamic than in large companies, because their close relationship with their surroundings and their proximity to their stakeholders give them a well-grounded understanding of their own social and environmental impacts — allowing them to manage those impacts promptly and turn them into opportunities that contribute to sustainable development.
Despite the important role these organisations play in achieving a sustainable development model built around the SDGs, only a very small proportion of SMEs know anything about the 2030 Agenda.
SMEs with good sustainability practice
In order to encourage SMEs to recognise the role they play in the sustainable development model, the study analysed Spanish SMEs noted for their good sustainability practice.
Analysis of publicly available information from those SMEs — websites, sustainability reports and communication on progress reports — found that 45% of them associate their good sustainability practice with the 2030 Agenda.
The study also examined how the 2030 Agenda has been integrated into the management of the SMEs mentioned above, and found that not all of them have set out and published measurable, time-bound targets that would allow them to demonstrate the commitment they have made to sustainable development and to measure their contribution towards the SDGs.
Conclusions
Because of the important role companies play in today’s socio-economic development model, they have been recognised as significant actors in delivering the SDGs. CSR is the tool available to companies of every size for striking a balance between financial return and the management of their social and environmental impact, allowing them to contribute to a sustainable development model whose goal is the SDGs.
SMEs account for more than 90% of all companies worldwide, generate between 60% and 70% of decent employment and are responsible for 50% of global GDP. It is therefore clear that these organisations contribute considerably not only to reducing poverty, by creating a great deal of decent work, but also to achieving the sustainable development model and the 2030 Agenda.
While the feasibility of applying any given sustainability initiative will depend on the nature of each SME, and on its own process of assessment and prioritisation, the good practice highlighted here can serve as a reference — to be considered, evaluated and adopted by companies where it fits, as a way of beginning to integrate the SDGs into their management. Communicating that practice fully and responsibly is therefore of considerable importance.
To demonstrate the commitment made and to assess the contribution towards the SDGs, it matters that the commitment to the 2030 Agenda is made public, with realistic, achievable, measurable and time-bound targets set and published for every sustainability initiative and project.
Roughly 80% of SMEs have either no knowledge or only a superficial knowledge of the 2030 Agenda. Sustainable development will clearly be difficult to achieve without the commitment, participation and contribution of the companies that make up 90% of the world’s private business sector, which is why promoting the integration of the SDGs into SME management matters so much.
Article by Lautaro Tacari, drawn from his final master’s project “Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into SME management”. Supervisor: Daria Mottareale.
