Environment

Humanity is currently facing many environmental and climate challenges such as climate change, species extinction, freshwater scarcity, and deforestation. Companies can and must contribute to countering these challenges. Stakeholders such as investors, customers, and NGOs are increasingly expressing their expectations for companies to take responsibility.

In addition, the business relevance of effective environmental and climate management is increasing for companies due to ever-growing national and international regulatory requirements (e.g., Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), EU Taxonomy, Eco-design Directive). For these strategic reasons and as a basis for investment and financing decisions, it is advisable for companies to proactively address their impacts on the environment and climate.

As part of their environmental and climate management, companies also make an important contribution to achieving the 2030 Agenda. Almost all SDGs relate to environmental and climate management, and many even address these issues directly, such as SDG 6, focusing on clean water and sanitation, SDG 13, with goals in climate protection and adaptation to climate change, as well as SDGs 14 and 15, which deal with environmental issues related to life below water and on land.

Our Offerings for You

Companies that sign the UN Global Compact commit to the Environmental principles of the UN Global Compact, which aim to address these global challenges. These principles are derived from the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted at the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Johannesburg. For participating companies, this means specifically adopting a precautionary approach to their environmental and climate impacts in all their business activities (Principle 7), promoting environmental awareness both within and outside their company (Principle 8), and actively participating in the development and dissemination of environmentally and climate-friendly technologies (Principle 9).

The UN Global Compact and the UN Global Compact Network Germany support you in developing and implementing successful environmental and climate management through numerous learning and dialogue formats. You can get an overview of these formats on the respective topic pages Climate Management, Biodiversity, Circular Economy, and Water Management. Both beginners and advanced practitioners will find the right offering among our formats.