Robeco | Linking economic activities with the SDGs

The SDGs are 17 objectives for improving human society and ecological sustainability adopted by the United Nations in 2015. They cover a broad spectrum of sustainability topics, ranging from eliminating hunger and combating climate change to promoting responsible consumption and making cities more sustainable.The economic activities of companies can both positively and negatively impact any one of the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets. Investors including Robeco have developed strategies that target those companies that can make a net contribution, depending on their business activities.But how do individual economic activities ranging from manufacturing consumer goods to providing financial services make a difference? This was studied in a research paper by Jan Anton van Zanten, SDG Strategist with Robeco’s SI Center of Expertise, and Rob van Tulder, Professor of International Business and Society Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.