This business brief has been compiled based on the output of the event ‘Principles on Integrated SDG Investments & Finance’ on 17 October at ABN Amro in Amsterdam. This brief will address how Sustainable Finance Principles can be effectively implemented.

The CFO Principles on Integrated SDG Investments and Finance were introduced in 2020 to expedite private sector investment for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The primary motivation for such an introduction is accelerating private investments for the needed progress in implementing SDGs. There are four CFO Principles: 1) Developing an SDG Impact thesis (theory of change) and measurement; 2) Integrating the SDG impact thesis and investment plan into the corporate strategy; 3) Developing and implementing a comprehensive corporate SDG Finance approach 4) Integrated SDG communication and reporting.

Creating your SDG impact thesis and measurement basis

For developing an SDG impact thesis, avoiding a silo approach to departmental interaction is vital. Sustainability departments should interact well with the CFO and accounting departments. This will help the organization deal with the SDGs’ complexity and financial terrain. Another crucial factor for the SDG impact thesis is that it differs from the investment thesis. Instead of prioritizing financial gain, it prioritizes SDG impact. In some areas, they might even be overlapping. For instance, carbon prices can create awareness about reducing costs and the adverse effects on climate. The impact measurement should include hard metrics consistent with SDG targets and indicators. If this impact measurement is integrated broadly within the organization, it will bring the benefit of more awareness and better coordination.

Integrating an SDG impact strategy and Investment plan

When integrating the SDG impact thesis and investment plan into corporate strategy, it is crucial not to underestimate the positive effect of involving internal stakeholders. If internal stakeholders are on board at this stage, they will better understand the SDG impact perspective and perform better when it comes to implementation. The organizations can also collaborate with external stakeholders such as suppliers and public entities. For example, an independent SDG verification of the investment plan might help realize gaps and elements to improve. External stakeholders can contribute to integrating a multiplicity perspective in capital, enhancing the corporate SDG Finance Approach. Capital is not considered solely monetary value anymore but includes skills, knowledge, community development, and environmental protection.

Communication and reporting

Finally, disclosing only what is being done is insufficient to communicate and report the SDG impact. A long-term vision, a prospect for the future, will help the organization progress further and receive public feedback. The insight from our event groups emphasize the importance of support from peers, internal stakeholders, and external partners. The organizations do not have to invent everything themselves. They can already use existing frameworks and benchmarks. Following good governance mechanisms are key to assessing the SDG activities.

Key take away

The most emphasized actions to consider for implementing Sustainable Finance Principles include collaborating with external stakeholders and including internal stakeholders at nearly every stage. Implementing Sustainable Finance Principles is not a solitary endeavor but a collaborative partnership.

“From obstacles to opportunities”: What are the dilemmas and challenges Dutch businesses are facing and how can you help accelerate impact?

In this breakout session, we reflected on the SDG Stocktake Report, UNGA Week and various dilemmas that businesses are now facing. In this report, we reflect on an inspiring session. In the room were representatives from companies, central government, local governments,
NGOs, youth movements and knowledge institutions.

Key takeaways

• Make sure regulations do not merely lead to tick scoring but encourage ambition to strongly accelerate on the SDG agenda.
• Role for government to provide clarity and a long-term perspective, so businesses and consumers can act upon it.
• Increase the bottom-line with regulation, but also the ceiling with accelerated SDG action (such as with the Forward Faster Campaign).
• We need radical cooperation, also with competitors (SDG 17)
• Continuing challenge: How to get the entire supply chain (including Scope 3) to join the transition? For many companies, 85-90% of their impact lies with their suppliers and
  customers.

Summary

The session kicked off with a panel discussion moderated by Merei Wagenaar, Executive Director of UN Global Compact NL and the following speakers: Simon Henzell-Thomas, Global Director Climate & Nature at Ingka Group (IKEA), Jenny Wassenaar, Chief Sustainability Officer
at Trivium Packaging, Floris Dorgelo, Global Impact lead at Adyen and Jan-Willem Vosmeer, Manager of Sustainable Development & Stakeholder Engagement Global Corporate Affairs at Heineken NV.

In the SDG Stocktake report, we see that corporate commitment has grown. At the same time, progress is insufficient, while business can and does play a crucial role in accelerating progress. There is great untapped potential there. As Simon Henzell-Thomas points out, it’s no longer about the “why,” but about the “how.” Floris Dorgelo explains that Adyen can make a big impact with their technology, for example through their donation module. One issue is: how can we make the right contacts? Jenny Wassenaar puts another practical issue on the table: We need to produce less waste and better think about the recycling process and how we launch products on the Dutch market. Jan-Willem Vosmeer looks back on a reality check in New York, but with optimism. It is a good development that the focus is no longer solely on climate, but that biodiversity and water management are also receiving more attention. The biggest impact is in scope 3: cooperation with the supply chain is therefore essential. Good to realize: our scope 3 is their scope 1 and 2. You must motivate each other, but “how” remains a challenge.

With the CSRD, there are more requirements for companies to report on their impact. The panelists agree that the SDGs are not in competition with the CSRD. The SDGs are our common language (soft law), with CSRD you communicate progress. Simon Henzell-Thomas
(Ingka-Group) calls on companies not to use the new legislation to tick a box, but to increase sustainable commitment. There should be the same effort to meet SDG targets at year-end as there is for sales targets.

Ambitious sustainability targets are taken by Trivium and Heineken from the UN Global Compact’s Forward Faster Campaign. This campaign provides tools for companies to express far-reaching ambitions on five key themes (water resilience, gender equality, climate action, sustainable finance and living wage). Jenny Wassenaar (Trivium) recognizes that it is difficult for companies, especially SMEs, to get started on all 17 SDGs. By hooking into the Forward Faster campaign, companies can commit to targets where they can make the biggest impact, obviously without forgetting the other themes. According to Floris Dorgelo, Adyen is currently prioritizing SDG 17: partnership. All companies and organizations work within their own space,
if we work together, we can accelerate impact.

Following this, the panelists each moderated a roundtable discussion. At the conclusion of the breakout session, the main conclusions from these discussions were pitched.

Heineken: 90% of our impact is in scope 3 and thus our suppliers are essential. We can lean on laws, but not wait for them. Heineken suppliers are asked to join the Science-Based Target Initiative. Positive incentives to get involved (setting up pilots,
compensating costs) work, but the question is when to stop this: it has to become the normal way of doing business. Fortunately, suppliers themselves increasingly see the need to get involved. Suppliers are regularly brought together; this creates a psychological effect of encouragement and competition. Data collection within scope 3
still remains a challenge, although this is improving every year.

Adyen: A strong business case is important. You also need to make the consumer conscious about the impact of their action. This can be positive: for example, by donating money using Adyen’s technology.

Trivium Packaging: In the panel discussion of Trivium we discovered the shocking reality of our recycling rate worldwide. We can and must do better. Standardization for
production and waste separation is one of the solutions. In addition, if sustainability is not in the core business, someone should be appointed to represent this topic on the board.

Ingka-Group: Call to not only measure profits, but also impact on sustainability. This is also the responsibility of the shareholders. Sustainability should be embedded in the company, for example, if leadership changes, sustainability should not suffer. Laws and regulations provide certainty and a level playing field.

This year, UN Global Compact Network Netherlands is piloting two peer learning groups, one on Gender Equality and one on Climate Action. The goal is for the participating companies to learn more about these important topics, to dig into the challenges that they are facing, and to exchange best practices that can help overcome these challenges. This blog captures our companies’ peer learning journey.

Our fourth gender equality session was hosted by co-lead AkzoNobel and focused on hiring and retaining women employees. Participants joined from 13 organizations across diverse industries. It was our first online session, packed with content and best practices – we have the screenshots to prove it!

How can companies attract more women?

Many companies in the Netherlands want to hire more women to diversify their talent, but struggle, especially in male-dominated industries and for senior-management roles.

We were joined by experts Najat Saidi and Amy Cheung from Diversity Recruitment and Nikola Dimov, Global Head of Talent Acquisition from AkzoNobel, to discuss best practices to promote more women applicants, inclusive selection processes, and retention. Below are a few key takeaways.

Interestingly, Diversity Recruitment finds that men respond to both female and male descriptions, whereas women respond mostly to female descriptions. So, if your company aims to recruit more women employees, it’s worth using more feminine-coded language.

Describe behaviour instead of traits
Some traits resonate more with men than women, so wherever possible, use verbs rather than adjectives. For example: “You are results-oriented”, becomes “You set well-defined and achievable goals, both short-term and long-term that serve as a roadmap for their efforts.”

Minimise the requirements list & focus on transferable skills
Many companies look for a jack of all trades – someone who can do everything the job asks and more. To broaden the pool of applicants, it’s important companies only mention the essential job requirements, and are open to the complementary and transferable skills that a candidate brings.

AkzoNobel shared many other initiatives that they use to encourage female applications, such as: providing women employees coaching and support, creating development plans with them, enabling women candidates to connect with more senior women employees, and if an internal vacancy only attracts male applicants, opening up the vacancy externally. 

Focusing on the other side, Arcadis shared that they always include at least one man and woman in interview panels to diversify their selection team. For more guidance on inclusive recruitment and selection, check out the Social and Economic Council (SER)’s guidance in Dutch here.

How can companies retain women employees?

When our participants were asked what currently makes them stay in their jobs, the most common responses were their organisation’s ‘opportunities for growth’ and ‘workplace culture’. 

A global 2022 study by Deloitte echoes this. A lack of positive work-life balance and a lack of learning developments are respectively the second and third most important reasons for women to consider leaving their job. The number one reason? “Lack of flexibility for working times.” 

Multiple participants indicated that their company’s policies around (complete) remote working and working from abroad (for a maximum of two weeks) have indeed helped increase employees’ overall job satisfaction and retention. While some of these policies were informal, participants agreed that formalizing them could help increase organizations’ accountability to keep this flexibility. 

Additionally, participants were encouraged to connect with their government or public affairs teams to see how their company can work with the Dutch government to ensure daycare becomes more affordable for their employees, making it easier to work more hours if they wish.

Below you can find more reasons provided by Diversity Recruitment that have been found to support the retention of women employees in the Netherlands:

So many opportunities, so little time!

As you can tell, there are many ways for companies to hire and retain more women employees. Companies should closely monitor which initiatives are working and adjust as needed, because as Nikola explained, no one size fits all, but many are bound to fit. Our participants closed the session feeling excited, energized, inspired, and ready to ‘go, go, go’!

The next session will be on November 7 on the topic of Inclusive Marketing & Communications, co-hosted by Deloitte and Oxycom.