This guide explores the role of corporate finance and investments in scaling finance for the Sustainable Development Goals, including how FDI, financial intermediation and public-private partnerships can be a source of finance for less liquid SDG investments that cannot be invested directly by portfolio or institutional investors. This includes providing access to finance in countries with less developed financial markets or for SDG solutions that are too small or illiquid to attract portfolio investors.   This publication is available in English and Spanish

Provides a summary and highlights of the inaugural SDG Investment Forum in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Examines how institutional investors across the world are beginning to interact with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and paint an early picture of investors’ current and future plans to engage with these Goals. The study also identifies barriers investors face to supporting the SDGs, and provides recommendations for how these could be overcome.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a blueprint for significantly changing the world by 2030, and the Investor Relations community can play a key role in turning these aspirational goals into reality. Reports show the level of investment needed to achieve the SDGs is approximately $5 to $7 trillion globally per year from 2015 to 2030, and investor relations can be a driving force behind the incorporation of strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices into business strategies and operations. On this episode of Business of Tomorrow, we interview three experts on the obstacles and opportunities of engaging the investment community in achieving long-term, sustainable capital markets and the importance of investor relations leadership for the SDGs. You can listen to this episode below or search for United Nations Global Compact/Business of Tomorrow on your smartphone podcast app.

Helps investors understand the sustainable development goals and how financial markets can support sustainable development. The report is intended to allow investors to learn, engage and collaborate on sustainable development goal focused activities in order to promote long-term sustainability.

Showcases industry-specific examples and ideas for corporate action related to the SDGs. Presented in a series of publications, each matrix will highlight bold pursuits and decisions made by diverse companies for each SDG.

The issue of taxation is steadily rising on the corporate sustainability agenda. Taxes are one of the main sources of revenue for governments. They are crucial to enable governments to deliver key services to their constituents such as health, education, housing and infrastructure. While tax legislation and enforcement are government responsibilities, companies, as tax payers, also have an important role to play to meet their own human rights responsibilities and to comply with the law. Jointly hosted by the UN Global Compact and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, this webinar provided a briefing on the link between tax and human rights, the challenges associated and new resources that have been developed for governments, investors, businesses and NGOs on emerging best practices related to tax and human rights. The webinar featured presentations from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, NEI Investments/PRI Taskforce on Corporate Tax Responsibility, and ActionAid.

Guides investors - both asset owners and investment managers - who are implementing ESG integration techniques in their investment process, this report is the most comprehensive description to date of what ESG-integrated analysis is, and how it works in practice.

Dedicated UN Global Compact microsite featuring Project Breakthrough intelligence and examples, including a series of video interviews, cases, interactive mappings, topic briefs and opinion blogs. The website is updated on an ongoing basis, so make sure to visit often.

Helps investors to understand why and how to engage companies on their tax practices, thus promoting corporate tax responsibility: a more responsible corporate approach to tax practices, including better disclosure and transparency, good governance and appropriate management of tax-related risks.

Many studies show a positive correlation between employee relations and financial performance, which is especially relevant in a labour-intensive sector such as retail. This guide describes lessons learnt from a PRI-coordinated engagement that saw 24 investors managing US$1.5 trillion of assets work together to enhance 27 global retail companies’ performance and reporting on employee relations.

The ESG Investor Briefing is a joint project of the UN Global Compact and the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The project is designed to improve company-investor communications on material environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) information. Building on the model of a quarterly financial call, companies presented how their ESG strategies and performance translate into financial value to an audience of mainstream investors.