Coca-Cola, Diageo, Unilever, Mars, Google among the members of 'Business Avengers' group set up by filmmaker Richard Curtis' green outfit
A cohort of some of the world's biggest companies have joined forces to promote business action on the Sustainable Development Goals, as the start of the 10-year countdown to their delivery looms in 2020.
The 'Business Avengers' group has been set up by Project Everyone, the SDG-focused communications venture from filmmaker Richard Curtis.
It counts Mastercard, Nike, Unilever, Google, and Coca-Cola among its 17-strong cohort, and aims to persuade other firms that taking action to meet the SDGs will boost their bottom line as well as their sustainability credentials.
The world is far off track to meeting the 2030 global goals, which include targets to end extreme poverty everywhere, roll out clean and affordable energy, tackle climate change and achieve gender equality. A UN progress report in June concluded not a single country is on track to meet the stretching targets.
Campaigners are trying to bill 2020 as the start of a 'Decade of Delivery' for the goals, in a bid to inspire political and corporate enthusiasm.
Under the 'Business Avengers' group, established by The Global Goals initiative run by Project Everyone, each of the 17 Business Avenger firms will promote business action on of the 17 SDGs.
Mars, for example, will be promoting SDG1 for zero poverty, while drinks giant Diageo will promote SDG6 for clean water and sanitation, and Google will promote SDG8 for decent work and economic growth.
"We've made some progress but nowhere near enough to deliver on the promises made by all nations in 2015," said Curtis. "It is now mission critical to inspire and engage the world to set the path for a decade of delivery.
"That means campaigning for major global policy breakthroughs, sparking ever-greater local and regional activism, and creating cultural moments that break into the mainstream and re-energize action to fight poverty, inequality and the climate crisis. Above all it means joining forces, from young activists to global companies, and we hope that the launch of the 'Business Avengers' shows this today, because together we can and must achieve the Goals."
The full list of companies signed up to the new initiative includes Arm, Avanti Communications, The Coca-Cola Company, Commvault, Diageo, Google.org, Mars Inc, Mastercard, Microsoft Corp., Nike, RB, SAP, Salesforce, and Unilever.
