Facts for real
Sustainable certifications schemes and the Sustainable Development Goals are equally important. Companies need both.
The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs, were launched in 2015. They have become hugely popular among as an overall framework. They provide an overview of what is important to Earth. Which is quite at lot. There are huge efforts to be achieved before 2030. The twenties will be an important decade for mankind. Individuals, companies and political decision makers will be busy.
The presentation of the SDGs is one of the greatest graphic masterpieces of all times. We like to look at the nicely arranged boxes in attractive colours. It works. We like them. We like to look at them. And we want to associate us with them. We are willing to wear them. They are both square boxes and circular symbols. Both male and female in their symbolic appearance. Thus, equally suitable for decoration of corporate websites and as buttonhole flower decorations on corporate suits. In massive numbers.
Let us face it. The SDGs are very suitable for window-dressing. They are not meant to be. But it is tempting to just put the sticker on as an uncommitted statement to the world. The real fact-loving and seriously working companies will follow up their interest in doing the right things by documenting their actions. This is where the third-party and multi-stakeholder certification and labelling systems are important. Our name for it is certi. Companies need both SDG thinking and certi to act sustainably. Period.
