Last month, I told you about my favourite United Nations Sustainable Development goals:

· 4: Quality Education

· 5: Gender Equality

· 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Hopefully that got you thinking about your favourites. In this article, I’m going to tell you about how you can use your chosen goals to help guide your business and corporate responsibility plans.

This is business advice, but it can be applied to schools, community organisations and families too!

As a reminder, pick a few goals that resonate with you, fit with what you do, and where you feel like you have the biggest opportunity to contribute to society and the planet.

Now is the time to choose some actions and objectives that link to them.

For example, perhaps you’re a medium sized financial business: you might focus on quality education and reduced inequalities by dedicating a certain amount of time to go into schools to talk to pupils about managing money.

This will fit with the skills of your people and be a big value add for your community.

It’s a simple example, but it shows how having a clear sustainability focus helps you to pick actions that support what you stand for.

Decision making is a big part of running a business, so having well-defined reasons why you do one thing over another is really helpful.

Identifying your Sustainable Development Goals can also help you innovate and try new things, not just to help your community and the planet but also to grow your business or save money.

If you run a restaurant and you champion zero hunger, it may lead you to create your menu in a different way or assess how much food is left on plates, reducing food waste, and increasing your profit margin!

More and more people are passionate about our planet, so if your business shows it cares and is doing something to make a difference, you’ll likely attract and retain people who share similar values and want to work for a business like yours.

Not only does this help your organisation thrive, it’s also a great story to tell staff, clients and prospective customers too.

If you’re still not sure how to go about this, why not get a few people together for a workshop to pick out those goals and make your people feel part of it.

The world can be a pretty challenging place at times, and if people feel like they can start to make a difference, you can have a positive impact on wellbeing too!

The key point to takeaway today is to start doing something. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it will make you feel positive that you’re contributing to the solution.

If everyone makes small changes to help our planet and community, then we really are moving in the right direction.

Still not sure what to do? Take a look at my Instagram account for more ideas @sust.consulting, or get in touch and I’ll be able to help you!