United Nations Global Compact
Introduction
Introduction
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is a strategic framework that encourages global organisations and businesses to adopt responsible business practices. The UN Global Compact framework aims to raise business awareness and take concrete action to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It operates on the basis of 10 principles derived from international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization's (ILO’s) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.
Key Takeaways
The UNGC is a voluntary and non-binding UN pact
The organisation comprises a global entity and local “networks” or branches in each participating country
It was launched in 2000 in New York City
The UN Global Compact framework operates under the guidance of the UN General Assembly, which defines it as an organisation that promotes responsible business practices and UN values within the global community and the UN system.
Reporting aspects UN Global Compact Framework
Communication on Progress (COP): All participating companies must submit an annual COP report comprising the CEO’s statement reaffirming the company’s commitment to UN Global Compact principles, a detailed description of the initiatives taken to implement policies relating to the UNGC and a measurement of the outcome.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Companies are encouraged to integrate SDGs into their strategies. The UNGC promotes SDGs as the global footprint for sustainable development. It has also partnered with B Lab to develop SDG Action Manager, an online assessment tool to help businesses track their impact on specific SDGs. It also implemented the SDG Ambition initiative that challenges and supports signatories setting ambitious corporate targets and accelerating the integration of the 17 SDGs into core business management.
Stakeholder engagement: Companies’ engagement with stakeholders should be included, highlighting their concerns and how they have been addressed, along with the sustainability-related initiatives taken.
Reporting tools and resources: The UNGC’s Reporting Guidance and the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership help companies in their reporting and encourage them to use recognised external standards and frameworks, such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Integrated Reporting Framework.
How Acuity Knowledge Partners can help
We support private-markets clients across asset classes, including private equity, private credit/debt, private equity secondaries and buyout firms with investment screening. We conduct positive and negative screening, UN Global Compact framework signatory screening for target screening, and screening for LP/GP reporting, regulatory reporting and compliance with the SFDR and EU Taxonomy. We also provide ESG support services across the investment lifecycle, with customised support for pre-deal and post-deal operations.
About the Authors
Monika has been working at Acuity Knowledge Partners as an Associate for 2.5 years within PM, and primarily involved in various ESG assignments, comprehensive SFDR reporting with in-depth research and analysis, sustainability report building, data extraction testing, and supports other ad-hoc ESG related tasks.
At Acuity, Rabin is overseeing multiple ESG engagements which includes research, analysis and reporting assignments for clients in the US and Europe. Overall, Rabin holds an experience of ~10 years which is spread across various areas of client management and interface within the domain of ESG and Sustainability. Rabin holds a post-graduate diploma in Sustainable Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
Ambarish has about 17 years of experience in business research, analysis and consulting. He is engaged in leading deep-dive strategic projects, due-diligence support, issue-focused trend analysis and similar assignments for our Private Markets clients. His previous experience includes tenures with startups, the Big Four and consulting organisations, where he focused on industry studies, price forecasting, company analysis, macroeconomic studies and other strategic engagements.
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