Sustainable Business

The SDG 12 targets cover a range of entry points and actors for promoting responsible consumption and production. This includes acknowledging the critical role of the private sector in the shift to sustainable consumption and production patterns.

While the private sector has a critical role to play in the attainment of the SDGs, Target 12.6 and Indicator 12.6.1 are the only ones specifically monitoring the practices of private sector entities. While Indicator 12.6.1 counts the number of companies producing “sustainability reports”, the custodian agencies consider the indicator an important opportunity not only to monitor and promote the growth in sustainability reporting globally, but also to monitor and promote high quality reporting that provides data on sustainability issues in a consistent and comparable manner as well as enhance the integration of sustainability information into the annual reporting cycle of companies and promote sustainability practices by companies (as mentioned in the Target under which the indicator falls). Attempts have therefore been made to integrate all of these aspects into the methodology, to the extent possible.