Daniel Traynor
Relationship Executive, Chambers Ireland
Discover the toolkit that helps businesses visualise sustainability connections and identify the goals most relevant to their own operations.
More than 8,000 businesses across Ireland are part of the Chamber network. Chambers support these businesses in responding to a range of challenges; one of the most pressing today is how to become more sustainable while remaining profitable and competitive.
Where to begin the sustainability journey
For many businesses, the difficulty is not a lack of ambition but knowing where to begin. Sustainability can appear broad and complex, covering everything from energy use and waste to supply chains, employment practices and community impact. However, businesses do not need to address every issue at once. A practical starting point is to understand and identify the priorities most relevant to its activities and turn these into clear, measurable actions.
We use these SDGs to guide our policy submissions
and consider the wider impact of the positions we advocate.
Sustainable development toolkit
Several years ago, Chambers Ireland developed its ‘SDG Toolkit’ to help businesses understand how their activities contribute to sustainable development. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a useful framework for identifying where an organisation has an impact and how changes across areas such as energy, employment, equality, procurement and community engagement can support wider sustainability objectives.
We use these SDGs to guide our policy submissions and consider the wider impact of the positions we advocate. Businesses can apply the same approach when planning positive changes within their own organisations.
How to put SDGs into practice
However, the SDGs can initially feel distant or abstract. A business may look at the 17 goals, agree with their ambitions and still be unsure how to use them in practice. The answer is not to attempt to address every goal at once. Instead, businesses should begin by examining their own activities and identifying where they have the greatest environmental and social impact.
From there, the business can identify the SDGs most closely connected to these areas and use them to guide specific, measurable actions using the SDG toolkit, which you can find on our website. You can also learn about our Chambers Ireland Wellbusiness Charter on chambers.ie. This new Charter can help transform your business to support wellbeing.
If you would like to forward us any feedback on the Toolkit you can email us on [email protected].
If you would like to join a local Chamber please check out our website and see local membership.
