Date of event: 4 May 2017
Location: Sheffield Business School.
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 – Sheffield was then formally opened by Dr Christine Gilligan, Sheffield Business School. Steve Kenzie, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network UK also 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 a panel discussion on How can business get involved? with Dr. John Carlisle, Honorary Doctorate of Sheffield Business School and business consultant, Dr. Christine Gilligan, Senior Lecturer, Sheffield Business School – Sheffield Hallam University and Andi Stamp, Freeman College. The panel was moderated by Steve Kenzie.
Making Global Goals Local Business – Sheffield ended with some closing remarks from Steve Kenzie and a networking reception.
Further resources:
For further information please contact the UK Network Secretariat: secretariat@unglobalcompact.org.uk
This SDG Roadshow event was supported by: