Date of event: 21 June 2017

Location: University of Liverpool.

Event description:

The proceedings began with the showing of several short films produced by Project Everyone to help raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. The films can be found here.

Making Global Goals Local Business – Liverpool was formally opened by Professor Elizabeth Parsons, Professor of Marketing, University of Liverpool, who thanked attendees for coming and gave a brief description of the University’s wide-ranging interests in sustainability. She passed the floor on to Steve Kenzie, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network UK who presented some information about the SDGs Roadshow and why it had been undertaken, including a Eurobarometer survey that looked at awareness of the SDGs across Europe and found it was lowest in the UK. He also introduced attendees to the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.

After the welcome session, Steve Kenzie began the main event with a presentation on What are the SDGs and why should you care about them? He gave a brief account of how the Goals came into being and an overview of the Goals. He then did a deep dive into Goal 2 to demonstrate their scope and richness. Steve Kenzie’s slides are included in the event slide deck available here.

During a short break, participants were invited to take part in a ‘Dot Voting’ exercise on the SDGs. By using black and white stickers, they were asked to indicate which of the SDGs represented business opportunities for their city today and in five years. The results of the exercise are shown below (click image to view full size).

SDGs Dot Voting – Liverpool

After the break, Mike Brogan, Chief Executive, Procure Plus gave a keynote speech. Mike spoke about the work his companies are doing to create social and economic value for local communities. Through Osco Homes, Women on the Tools, and Procure Plus, Mike and his colleagues are making significant contributions to SDGs 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 17. Mike Brogan’s slides are available here.

The programme resumed with a panel discussion, How can business get involved? moderated by Steve Kenzie. The panelists introduced themselves and spoke about their engagement with the sustainable business agenda. Below a more detailed summary of the panellists’ organisations and a link to their websites.

  • Mike Brogan, Chief Executive, Procure Plus – Procure Plus Holdings Limited is a not for profit company that specialises in the procurement of goods and services related both to new-build and to the repair and maintenance of a wide range of social housing. Learn more about the company here.
  • Angela Gaskell, Head of Sourcing, N Brown Group, Manchester – N Brown Group is a digital fashion retailer, which designs, sources and creates own-range and branded fashion and homewares. The company is committed to respecting people, protecting the planet and producing responsibly. To learn more about N Brown Group and its CSR Charter click here.
  • Matt Coppin, Executive at Castlefield Advisory Partners, Manchester – Castlefield is an advice and investment management group at the forefront of growing the UK market for responsible, ethical and thoughtful investing. Learn more about Castlefield’s work in responsible and sustainable investment here.
  • James Sloan, CEO, Imagine If Trust, Liverpool – IF is a grant-making foundation, which aims to support charities and projects that are particularly focused on building community and on empowering participants to reach their potential. Their partnerships include Music In Detention, b.friend, Roots Coffee & Community and The Women & Families Resource Centre. More information on If Trust can be found here.
  • Dr Alan Southern, Co-Director of the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy and Practice, University of Liverpool Management School – The Heseltine Institute for Public Policy and Practice is an interdisciplinary research centre focusing on the development of successful, sustainable and inclusive places in an unstable global world. Their areas of expertise are Health and Wellbeing, Governance, Social Economy and Civic Imagination. Learn more about the work of the institute here.

Steve Kenzie brought the event to a close thanking the speakers and attendees for their support.

 Further resources:

  • Download a .pdf 2-pager listing all the SDG targets here.
  • More details on the Global Goals can be found here.

For further information please contact the UK Network Secretariat: secretariat@unglobalcompact.org.uk

This SDG Roadshow event was supported by: