Sustainable Development Goals Atlas

Abstract

In 2017, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and IPIECA released a joint report, Mapping the Oil and Gas Industry to the SDGs: An Atlas (from here on referred to as the Atlas). The Atlas focuses on creating a shared understanding of the implications of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the oil and gas industry and how the industry can most effectively contribute to their achievement. The Atlas offers an overview of opportunities and challenges, demonstrating the actual and potential contributions of the industry to the achievement of the SDGs. It reviews each goal separately, highlighting existing knowledge and resources, examples of good practice, and case studies of innovative efforts by companies in support of each goal. This paper will discuss the aims of the Atlas, which is to encourage companies to further incorporate relevant SDGs into their business and operations, validate their current efforts, and spark new ideas. If replicated and applied widely, the practices and examples presented in the Atlas could make important contributions to the SDGs. Success will require substantial and sustained leadership by national and local governments, in partnership with the private sector, communities and civil society, development agencies, and other stakeholders. Oil and gas companies can more effectively contribute by collaborating with stakeholders to broaden their impact and enhance their ability to leverage additional resources in support of the SDGs agenda. Whilst developing the Atlas, the authors found that the oil and gas industry has the potential to contribute to all 17 SDGs. However, there are some SDGs where the industry has particularly strong opportunities to contribute, for example, the goals relating to affordable and reliable energy (SDG7); climate action and life on land and in water (SDGs 13, 14 and 15); economic development and innovation (SDGs 8 and 9); and health and access to clean water (SDGs 3 and 6). To demonstrate the contribution the industry can make, this paper will take a deep dive into goal 7; drawing upon the case studies and information from the Atlas and highlighting their interlinked nature by illustrating how contributing to just one goal can influence other goals.

Do agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals act at local and operational levels? Evidence from a case study in a large energy company in Italy

“…The long‐term commitment put in place by ALFA enabled the logic of sustainability to be fully integrated in all the design and construction phases of the transmission lines. From this point of view, in accordance with Mire et al (2018) and Ite (2018), the SDGs represent the lens through which the concrete effects of this integration process can be outlined and measured, revealing the consequent effects at the local level. Moreover, from an accountability perspective, this vision of the SDGs also represents an opportunity to support the reporting and communication of corporate sustainability, both intensifying this practice (Shoaf et al, 2018; Thorlakson et al, 2018; Verdolini et al, 2018), and increasing its transparency and credibility (Agarchand & Laishram, 2017; Anasi et al, 2018).…”

“…The case seems to provide a new interpretive model for the SDGs on the integration of sustainability. It enriches the existing literature (Mire et al, 2018;Scheyvens et al, 2016) by identifying SDGs as a guiding tool both for policies and operations. In term of managerial implications, we found that the SDGs can enable top managers to design strategies in accordance with sustainability priorities defined on a global scale.…”

“…In particular, two papers presented at the 2018 Society of Petroleum Engineers International Conference demonstrate the increasing interest of the oil and energy industries in making their activities more sustainable, in line with the SDGs. One paper is a theoretical study that proposes a methodology to integrate the various goals into a company's core business in order to obtain a potential impact on the SDGs (Mire, Depraz, Collacott, & Collins, 2018). This study also highlights the integration of the goals through company policies, reporting initiatives, management systems, and international standards.…”