UNITING BUSINESS LIVE, SYDNEY: A scope 3 lens exists not just in climate but in human rights, gender and inequality issues, a large sustainable business event heard on Wednesday.
On her first visit to Australia, Assistant Secretary-General and CEO, United Nations Global Compact, Sanda Ojiambo had surprisingly nice things to say about her host country.
On Ojiambo’s account, Australia is on track to meet half of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which started in 2015 and form the centrepiece of the UN’s 2020-2030 Decade of Action. The rest of the world is tracking at only about 17 per cent.
She highlighted the challenge of falling GDP in many countries, Australia included, which exacerbated “this huge investment gap that we need for sustainable development”.
Calling for greater involvement from funders and investors, she said: “The SDGs will not succeed unless we’re able to put the financing that we need towards them. And I think that’s absolutely, really critical.”
The New York-based, Kenyan-born sustainability diplomat was a keynote speaker on Wednesday at the Uniting Business Live two-day event in Sydney, hosted by the UN Global Compact Network Australia, representing an international network of nearly 20,000 companies.
Ojiambo described Australia’s progress on the SDGs as “remarkable”, but also called for greater private sector advocacy to accelerate action on them, urging more than 500 business people in the audience to step up: “We need the private sector to advocate, to sit across the table with government and to make sure that we can collectively drive progress forward.”
Her three-point recipe for business action and contribution was innovation, advocacy and setting ambitious and credible targets, and of course, meeting them.
But Ojiambo recognised the complexity of being a 21st century business leader, saying the job for CEOs now “requires them to address a wide range of geopolitical, societal and environmental challenges”, as well as technical shifts.
Asked about Australia’s introduction of mandatory reporting of climate-related financial information from January 2025, she stressed its importance but warned businesses against approaching it with a compliance mindset.
“I think investors, internal shareholders, CEOs, staff, consumers do want to know what companies are doing. It helps hold you to account. Drive your business models. Think about how they align your resources and strategy.
There seems to be a little bit of anxiety and fear around reporting. And the concern that I also hear from CEOs is how much of a resource drain this takes away from action
“But I have a couple of concerns, because there seems to be a little bit of anxiety and fear around reporting. And the concern that I also hear from CEOs is how much of a resource drain this takes away from action. And how do you then, as a CEO, sort of balance a need to innovate and progress with strong action as well as report?
“I just caution against seeing mandatory reporting simply a compliance exercise, because it takes away from the opportunities to drive sustainability in action, to move forward, faster and further on key issues.”
Ojiambo also addressed scope 3 emission reporting as being “absolutely important”, but took a holistic approach, extending the “scope 3 lens” beyond greenhouse gas emissions reporting to other areas.
“I think in everything that we do, there’s a scope 3 lens, not just in climate. It exists in human rights. It probably exists in gender and inequality issues. What happens through your suppliers is probably the most opaque view of a business that a CEO will have, and we do need to address that, because a business is actually only as strong as its weakest link.
“Huge companies go down because of allegations that have happened, you know, far away across the field that they were just not aware of. And it’s important. And so I think, you know, if I was sitting here as an Australian business leader, I think it’s one to think about, how do I align my resources better to be sure that I can both drive action and reporting”
