Date of event: 24 May 2017
Location: London South Bank University.
Event description:
The proceedings began with a presentation 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 – London was then formally opened by the Deputy Vice Chancellor of London South Bank University, Professor Patrick Bailey.
Next up David Clemson, Secretary, UK-Ireland PRME Chapter presented the organization and the relevance of the SDGs for its work. David’s slides are available here.
To conclude the welcome session, Steve Kenzie, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network UK welcomed attendees and provided some information about the SDGs Roadshow and why it had been undertaken. 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? 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 some of the Goals to demonstrate their scope and richness. Steve Kenzie’s slides are 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 which instead would be opportunities in five years. The results of the exercise are shown in the figure below (click image to view full size).
After the break, David Schofield, Group Head of Corporate Responsibility, Aviva gave a keynote speech. He presented Aviva’s sustainable business strategy, some examples of Aviva’s alignment to the SDGs and explained how the SDGs represent an opportunity for business growth. David Schofield’s slides are available here.
The event continued with Sue Riddlestone, CEO of Bioregional, an organization that was actively involved in the negotiations that led to the SDGs to make sure that SDG 12 was properly recognized. Sue presented Bioregional’s work on the SDGs and in particular the One Planet Living initiative. To know more about Bioregional click here.
Sue Riddlestone was followed by Marcia Balisciano, Director Corporate Responsibility, RELX Group, who talked about how RELX is taking action on the SDGs. Marcia gave a live demonstration of the SDGs Resource Center, a research platform focused on the SDGs that will be officially launched on 21 June 2017. From here to there: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030: An Inspiration Day will take place at London’s Southbank Center. For more information about this event please click here.
The 
event continued with a panel discussion on How can business get involved. David Schofield, Sue Riddlestone, Marcia Balisciano and Dr Safia Barikzai, Senior Lecturer at London South Bank University answered participants’ questions and discussed their views on the Global Goals.
Making Global Goals Local Business – London ended with some closing remarks from Steve Kenzie and a networking reception.
Further resources:
- Watch the recording of the event here: Part 1 and Part 2.
- Download 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:
