The Private Sector and its Contribution to the SDGs: A Journey to Data Gathering Through Corporate Sustainability Reporting in Colombia (under SDG target 12.6)

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Description

Intro

Acknowledging all efforts underway, the Government of Colombia intended to deepen the understanding of the overall contribution of the Colombian private sector to the SDGs. Technical Secretariat of the SDGs in Colombia, confirmed by the National Planning Department -DNP-, with the support of the GRI, the United Nations Development Program -UNDP and Business Call to Action -BCtA-, decided to promote synergies and develop a roadmap to collect and analyze data from the private sector, about its impact and contribution towards the SDGs.

Objective of the practice

The objective was to consider the contribution of the Colombian Private Sector to the SDGs, to understand its overall impact and contribution, without imposing any burden, but facilitating the collection of SDGs related business data, already disclosed by companies, through impact measurement and 
sustainability reporting according to the GRI Standards.

Partners

National Planning Department -DNP-, GRI, the United Nations Development Program -UNDP and Business Call to Action -BCtA as well as the national actors: Private Competitiveness Council -CPC-, Bogota’s Chamber of Commerce, Antioquia Sostenible and Asobancaria, private sector, and relevant policy actors.

Implementation of the Project/Activity

8 sustainability disclosures connected to priority topics, connected to SDGs Targets were selected to measure companies’ impacts
and contribution to the SDGs and inform the Colombian 2018 NVR. The prioritization is based on a comparative analysis of ongoing initiatives and country priorities (such as the Green Growth Strategy) plus a review of indicators frequently reported by companies using GRI. Furthermore, a “working group” which provided inputs for required methodological adjustments to the data collection tool and ultimately for its consolidation reviewed these indicators.

With DNP guidance and the technical support of GRI, UNDP/BCtA developed a guide which defines and captures all relevant data vis-a-vis the eight selected indicators. The data gathering process was carried out through an on-line tool developed by UNDP, which allowed companies to fill in available information directly.

Simultaneously, through different regional entities, such as the Private Competitiveness Council -CPC-, Bogota’s Chamber of Commerce, Antioquia Sostenible and Asobancaria, we could capture information from 70 companies nationwide across seven (7) economic sectors: services, transportation, food and beverage, manufacturing, energy mining, construction and telecommunications. A multi-actor team from UNDP and DNP collected, systematized and analyzed the reported information.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

SDG 6, the mining-energy sector consumes more than 70% of ground and surface water, and the food and manufacturing sectors more than 50% of the water from public aqueducts. Furthermore, only 20% of the reporting companies carry out water reuse processes, which corresponds to 16% of the total volume of consumed water in 2017.
SDG 7, there is a high consumption of energy based on the use nonrenewable resources such as Natural Gas; however, it has decreased by 10% since 2015. The main energy consumers are within the miningenergy sector, followed by the manufacturing sector. The consumption of non-conventional renewable energy remains stable and low at 3% of the total energy consumed in the last three years.
For SDG 11, the information suggests that private sector investment in infrastructure increased between 2016 and 2017 only in 4 sectors: i) manufacturing (0.1%), ii) financial (17.7%), iii) construction (4.1%), and iv) mining-energy sector (118%), and the one with the highest representation accounted for over $3 million USD.
As to SDG 12, according to gathered data, there is an increasing trend to recycle to produce new products as this practice grew from 20.9% in 2016 to 25.2% in 2017.
Finally, for SDG 15 around half of the reporting companies recognize there are significant impacts on biodiversity generated by their indirect operations through their supply chains.

Enabling factors and constraints

Several factors made this endeavor possible and successful. First, there was an auspicious corporate context in Colombia. Most large companies are GRI reporters, which meant aggregating and mining data relying on the global GRI Standards was an easier task than if different reporting frameworks had been in widespread use. Second, the private sector showed a willingness to participate in meeting the SDGs and align with national priorities. Effective partnership was essential for this project, and all key stakeholders came together to realize this effort and asses Colombia’s progress on the SDGs.

Sustainability and replicability

With the government's commitment to continue this effort and the strong partnership that has been set, the analysis is planned to take place annually.

Conclusions

The partners also drafted lessons learned to improve the process and inform other countries. These recommendations included: 
 
1) Improve the reporting process with companies through personalized follow-up mechanisms, facilitating the interpretation of records and their relationship with the company’s economic and productive performance. 
 
2) Increase reporting times and the analysis timeframe to address data consistency issues and confirm information with companies. 
 
3) Use standardized data registration mechanisms, such as web-based tools, to reduce the chances of human error in data transcription and to save time in the aggregation process. 
 
4) Have an SDG expert team by theme to improve data interpretation and enable report writing with a technical approach. 
 
5) Strengthen the description of the requested information on each of the indicators, to reduce the risk of wrong or inconsistent reporting due to different interpretations.

Other sources of information

http://www.co.undp.org/content/dam/colombia/docs/Pobreza/ODS/Private%20…

https://undataforum.org/WorldDataForum/the-power-of-new-data-sources-ho…

SDGS & Targets

Goal 15

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss