As investors and businesses seek to incorporate sustainable development and impact into their work, the SDG Impact Standards are practical guides that help improve how we understand, communicate, and implement impact. While there are Impact Standards specific to different user groups, they all promote a common approach that connects business purpose and practice to impact contribution.
The SDG Impact Standards bridge between high level principles and impact reporting. They also serve as examples for enterprises who are working to contribute positively to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Intended for voluntary and independent use, investors and companies who want to embed impact in their activities can assess their impact progress by referencing the SDG Impact Standards.
Organised along four themes (Governance, Management, Strategy, and Transparency), the SDG Impact Standards offer a common language for impact. They help guide enterprises in their internal processes, practices, and decision making, towards impact outcomes. The SDG Impact Standards also provide a consistent context within which enterprises can understand and apply other impact measurement and management tools and frameworks.
With detailed practice guidance on internal management and decision making to measure and manage impact, the SDG Impact Standards complement other higher-level principles, such as those set out by the International Finance Corporation in its Operating Principles for Impact Management, and the six aspirational principles set out by the UN Principles for Responsible Investment network.
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About the SDG Impact Standards
SDG Impact Standards for Private Equity Funds
SDG Impact Standards for Bonds
SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises
SDG Impact and Temasek Trust – Partnering to promote SDG Impact standards in Asia
SDG Impact is UNDP’s flagship initiative to establish global practice standards for SDG-enabling investment and provide investors and businesses with tools that would help them identify areas of need and make targeted investments.
Temasek Trust joined UNDP’s SDG Impact Steering Group in 2019. As the anchor partner for Asia, Temasek Trust, through the Centre for Impact Investing and Practices, helps drive awareness, adoption, and application of SDG Impact standards and tools in a way that is useful and relevant to the Asian context.