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Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Besides that, the

company can also decide for its own indicators.
When compiling the indicators aiming to track the company’s progress on sustainable
development, indicators referring to the company’s inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and

impacts have to be taken into account. Moreover, a balance between indicators predicting the
company’s outcomes and impacts and indicators measuring its outcomes and impacts has to be
found.
After the performance indicators have been defined, data for each of the indicators can be
collected. Frequently used methods of data collection and aggregation include, for instance,

reporting systems, field visits, questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. When data collection
turns out to be complex, the cost-benefit ratio must be considered. Exploiting existing business
systems, as for example used in sales or purchasing, provides an efficient way of data collection.

Lastly, the company should guarantee data quality and integrity by implementing adequate control
mechanisms.

Defining priorities across the SDGs

Based on the identified and quantified current and potential, positive and negative impacts of a
company’s value chain on sustainable development, the next step is to define priorities for action.
These priorities are supposed to help the company to gradually align its business activities
towards the SDGs.

On the one hand, this prioritization task should take into account opportunities resulting from the
company’s current or potential positive impacts on the SDGs. Such an opportunity may be the
possibility to innovate or to open up new markets and thus grow.

On the other hand, the defined priorities should also consider the magnitude, severity, and
likelihood of current and potential negative impacts of a company’s business activities on the
SDGs and how these negative impacts can be mitigated. Over time, the challenges that the
business practices pose to sustainable development may materialize in costs or risks for the
company.

Finally, all three steps of the process of realigning business activities towards the SDGs involve
subjective judgments. It is therefore recommended to document this process in a transparent way
and to repeat it periodically to track the evolution of impacts and priorities.

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