Global Best Practice Frameworks 

For businesses of all sizes:

• The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by 193 member states in 2015, providing an ambitious, globally-agreed, shared blueprint for the world we want to see by 2030. The UK is responsible for achieving the Goals domestically and for supporting their attainment internationally. No matter how large or small, and regardless of their industry, all companies can contribute to the SDGs. For companies wanting to advance the SDG agenda, the job starts by acting responsibly – incorporating the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact widely into strategies and operations, and understanding that good practices or innovation in one area cannot make up for doing harm in another.

• UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are organized under 3 pillars – Protect, Respect and Remedy. The three pillars define the duties of States and businesses to protect human rights. Each pillar provides a set of actionable steps to ensure the protection of human rights within the context of business operations. These Guiding Principles apply to all business enterprises, regardless of their size, sector, location, ownership and structure.
• The Greenhouse Gas Protocol was launched in 1998 and provides the world’s most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standards for companies. GHG Protocol standards and guidance enables companies of all size to measure, manage and report greenhouse gas emissions from their operations and value chains. The GHG Protocol introduced the concept of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, separating direct and indirect carbon emissions.

For larger businesses:

• The Climate Disclosure Project (CDP) is a global non-profit that runs the world’s only independent environmental disclosure system that supports organizations to navigate a rapidly evolving landscape. CDP serves as a one-stop shop for understanding and disclosing against the relevant market and regulatory demands, bringing together the world’s most relevant frameworks and standards (including IFRS, ESRS, TNFD, TCFD, GRI) so that they are interoperable and available to stakeholders across different regulatory markets.
• The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has developed a set of disclosure recommendations and guidance that encourage and enable business and finance to assess, report and act on their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. The recommendations and guidance will enable businesses and finance to integrate nature into decision making.

• The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct aim to encourage positive contributions to economic, environmental and social progress, and to minimise adverse impacts associated with an enterprise’s operations, products and services. The Guidelines cover all key areas of business responsibility, including human rights, labour rights, environment, bribery and corruption, consumer interests, disclosure, science and technology, competition, and taxation. The 2023 edition of the Guidelines provides updated recommendations for responsible business conduct across key areas, such as climate change, biodiversity, technology, business integrity and supply chain due diligence.
• Climate Action 100+ is an investor-led initiative to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change in order to mitigate financial risk and to maximize the long-term value of assets. Climate Action 100+ has become the largest ever global investor initiative on climate change, engaging 169 companies – including 12 automotive OEMs and some of their major suppliers – on improving climate change governance, cutting emissions and strengthening climate-related financial disclosures, in order to mitigate financial risk and to maximise long-term value of assets.