As a large company, we are responsible for the various ways we create an impact across society, in the Benelux and beyond. Alongside the execution of our strategy, we also need to look at the value we create over the longer term and on a broader range of societal topics. We have based the output and outcomes of our value creation model on our key material topics and linked these to the longer-term impact on the UN's Sustainable development goals (SDGs).
To progress on sustainable development and improve the impact we have on society we have identified four focus SDGs that our business activities have the greatest impact on. From our own operations, decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) is our most relevant SDG, followed by climate action (SDG 13). Through collaboration along our value chain, we focus on making progress on industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9) and responsible consumption and production (SDG 12). Because all SDGs are interrelated, the actions we take to make headway with our four focus SDGs impact all other SDGs.
We have developed our approach towards our focus SDGs and identified relevant interrelations between other SDGs based on specific SDG sub targets as defined by the United Nations (UN). We have mapped the material topics to the focus SDGs and the contribution they make to the linked SDGs, as seen in the table below. More information about our contribution to the SDGs can be found in 'Non-financial statements'
Connecting our value creation to focus and interrelated SDGs | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Value | Ambition | SDG | Focus SDG - sub target | SDG | Linked SDG - sub target |
Customer value | Doing good | ![]() | 8.2 | ![]() | 17.3 |
Doing good | ![]() | 9.4 | |||
Doing good | ![]() | 9.5 | |||
Social value | Avoiding harm | ![]() | 8.8 | ![]() | 3.6 |
Doing good | ![]() | 8.5 | ![]() | 4.3, 4.5 | |
![]() | 10.2 | ||||
Environmental value | Doing good | ![]() | 9.4 | ![]() | 7.2 |
Avoiding harm | ![]() | 12.4 | ![]() | 3.9 | |
Avoiding harm | ![]() | 13.2 | ![]() | 11.6 | |
![]() | 17.6 | ||||
Financial value | Doing good | ![]() | 8.1 | ![]() | 1.2 |