Engaging with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Helping organisations to ‘on board their Board’ when it comes to sustainability

SDG wheel

The Challenge

To educate and build awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guiding framework for the Chamber’s commitment to sustainable development.

Strategy icon

Our Approach

Change by Degrees designed and facilitated a 1-hour presentation to the Board of Cork Chamber to educate and inspire them to adopt and promote the SDGs as a framework to shape all decision making at board level.

The workshop used SDG tools and case studies to reveal the opportunities inherent in integrating the SDGs into the work of the Chamber.

How we helped

By applying a sustainability lens to board level decisions and mapping Cork Chamber’s strategic plan to their priority SDGs, board members gained a more holistic view of the role the SDGs could play in helping the Chamber fulfill its purpose.

Strategy icon

The Impact

While knowledge on the SDGs varied, by the end of the session all members understood the opportunities that incorporating the SDGs into decision making would offer the Chamber. Key takeaways included the potential for the Chamber to connect its members to the SDGs and provide sustainability training, as well as leading by example on sustainability in Cork and nationally.

As a result the Chamber’s advocacy work is shaped by their commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the prioritisation of Goals 5, 8, 9, 11 &13 throughout all their activities.

“At Cork Chamber we have worked closely with Change by Degrees to bring independent and informed insight to our sustainability programme at Board level, with the team and among members. Madeleine and Tara bring a wealth of knowledge, passion and energy to this most critical of subjects for all of business and society. I look forward to continuing to work with them.”

Thomas McHugh, Director of Public Affairs, Cork Chamber