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Step 3 - Setting goals

The scope of the company's sustainability goals should be steered by the strategic priorities
determined in step 02 to include opportunities to contribute positively to the SDGs and decrease
present and possible adverse effects (Business&Sustainable Development Commission, 2017).
This procedure guarantees that the goals wrap up the company's processes and create

opportunities to progress across the value chain. For years, many companies in this field have
concentrated on issues such as carbon emissions, the use of water, and other natural resources.
However, goal setting connected to the social extents of sustainable development (deprivation
eradication and anti-corruption) is less standard; such issues can mean challenges in monitoring
and estimating success (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2015b). Regardless of these methodological
challenges, companies should set goals that surround all their described priorities across

sustainable development's economic, social and environmental aspects
(PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2015a).
Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) is the basis for driving, monitoring, and
communicating progress. If an organization focuses on broad and ambitious goals (challenging
to measure the progress), the solution is to pick several KPIs that each forms the basis for a

specific, measurable, and time-bound target, from the spectrum of indicators used to assess
impacts. For each priority, the company can restrict the selection down to a few key indicators
that best express its impact on the sustainable development topic (SDG Compass, 2015b).

Companies have to define the baseline for each goal, which can be linked to a particular point in
time or a particular period. It is the necessary company to decide on which type of goal to set. In
general, it can be chosen from two categories (Reuters Event, 2015):
• absolute goals, which take only the KPI into account,

• relative (also called intensity) goals, which compare the KPI to a unit of output.

The first group most suitable expresses the anticipated impact on society but does not consider
company growth. The second one measures the company's performance more accurately, but

the goal's impact is uncertain. Making the time horizon long enough to set goals representing a
significant turning moment for the industry will allow better transmission (United Nations Statistics
Division, 2021). Publicizing all or some of the company's goals can be an effective communication
tool for expressing the company's aspirations for sustainable development in simple and practical
terms. Inspiring and engaging employees or business partners help deliver a reasonable basis
for constructive dialogue with external stakeholders. The benefits of publicly announcing goals

should be compared with the potential risk of criticism if the company does not meet its targets in
time.

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