The Three Relevant SDGs
The members of the United Nations in September 2015 had a meeting in New York where they had adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the purpose of ensuring prosperity, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability within the world. The SDGs are has been defined by the UN as an ambitious plan for the planet, its people and prosperity. These principles are universal which are applicable to all people and nation seeking to address the problem of inequality and ensure that no one is left behind. These goals are wide ranging and seek to end hunger, poverty, sustainable consumption and production while promoting an inclusive and peaceful society. These goals can only be achieved if the private sectors work with the government and the involvement is maximum (Charter and Tischner 2017).
This paper provides for the most relevant SDGs to the Fast- moving Consumer Goods sector in terms of positive and negative impact on the environment and the society. The paper also discusses strategies which can be implemented to contribute meaningfully towards the three SDGs. The appropriate targets and indicators for the purpose of evaluating the strategies are also discussed in the report.
The most revenant SDGs which have been identified by the report to the Fast- moving Consumer Goods sector in terms of positive and negative impact on the environment and the society are as follows:
- SDG 2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
- SDG 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
- SDG 13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Through this goal various opportunities for shared values are created. It provides for collaboration with the farmers, traders and food processors for the purpose of enhancing productivity, Logistics, market efficiency and storage, and thus provide power to them to remain or enter in the value chain of the company through the production if safe, nutritious and high quality food (Tukker and Tischner 2017). The goal also provides for giving agricultural communities, traders and food processers access to capital so that their capabilities in relation to farming platform and markets in enhanced. Developing local variations of forfeited foods for the purpose of addressing the needs relating to nutrition of developing communities is also a part of this goal. The FMCG are those products which include daily consumer goods which are low in cost but are sold in large volumes. These also include food products. Thus as this SDG deals with ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture it is directly related to the FMCG sector. One of the most prominent examples where the company has used a strategy to gain a competitive advantage and to address the goal is that of Cargill. The Nourishing India program had been started by the company in relation to vitamins in edible oil which is abundantly used in India to meet nutrition needs as well as have a competitive advantage (Fuchs and Boll 2018).
SDG 2
This goal is in relation to ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns and also provides for opportunities for shared values. The goal provides for striving for sustainably sourced key products which include soy, paper, pulp, beef and palm oil. Natural refrigerants are to be used instead of Hydro-fluoro-carbons for ensuring environmental sustainability (Ali 2017). Internal Carbon Price has to be used for the purpose of making decisions related to capital projects as well as consideration in relation to emission of green house gases. Energy efficiency has to ensured across value change which includes manufacturing, packaging, logistics and sourcing. Proportion of irregular sized fruits and vegetables being sold as fresh food for the purpose of consumption by humans have to be increased rather than using them for stock feed or processing. The food and solid waste has to be reduced with respect to supply and production chains by collaborating with other stakeholders which include consumers, suppliers and retailers. Increasing recycling and reducing packaging of by products and end products of the production process is also a requirement of the goal. The goal also strives towards the designing of products which lower the use of consumer energy such as cleaning products and hygiene helping in the reduction of water consumption. Raising consumer awareness with respect to the significance of sustainable consumption and practical steps to enhance sustainability is also provided for by the goal. There are various companies which are leading by examples with respect to the goals. For instance significant investment amounting to DDK 1 billon has been made with respect to development, research, and use of sustainable raw materials. Another example is related to PepsiCo who have identified ways to deliver and package products for the purpose of reducing impact on environment and cost. Through, using such initiatives the organization have been able to reduce 110 million pounds of packing material from 2013 and also able to reduce their packaging cost by $55 million (Crane and Matten 2016).
The goal provides for addressing greenhouse gas emissions which arise out of agricultural issues together with the governments. This also importantly includes re-evaluating the proportion of diets which comes from animal sources with respect to the high level methane production via ruminant animals. The farmers needs to be supported with respect to developing more climate resilient agriculture. The requirement under this goal is also to implement after designing preparedness, recovery, and response and disaster risk mitigation plan across the value chain in locations of high risk. Steps are to be taken for reducing, measuring and reporting climate exposure and process on action to address climate change and continuously enhance the degree of consistency and transparency for industrial sector reporting. Finally the goal provides for providing support to high level industry and partnership association advocating for public polices related to the climate. There are various industries which are leading by an example with respect to this goal. For instance Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition Group, Inc, which is a major manufacturer of amino acids promotes the advantages of feed-use amino acids via developing a new environment friendly products as well and domestic and international organization collaboration. Nitrogen excretion has been substantially reduced through the use of feed-use amino acids with respect to animals thus saving natural protein sources and ensuring water and soil quality preservation and reducing green house gas emission (Spangenberg 2017).
SDG 12
There are various strategies which have been discussed above contributing towards three SDGs selected for this paper. For instance PepsiCo have identified ways to deliver and package products for the purpose of reducing impact on environment and cost. Through, using such initiatives the organization have been able to reduce 110 million pounds of packing material from 2013 and also able to reduce their packaging cost by $55 million. This strategy seeks to contribute towards SDG 12. Cargill has initiated the Nourishing India program in relation to vitamins in edible oil which is abundantly used in India to meet nutrition needs as well as have a competitive advantage. This strategy contributes towards achieving SDG 2 (Sauvé, Bernard and Sloan 2016). Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition Group, Inc, which is a major manufacturer of amino acids promotes the advantages of feed-use amino acids via developing a new environment friendly products as well and domestic and international organization collaboration. Nitrogen excretion has been substantially reduced through the use of feed-use amino acids with respect to animals thus saving natural protein sources and ensuring water and soil quality preservation and reducing green house gas emission. This strategy is contributing towards SDG 13. These strategies can be evaluated through analyzing the benefits they are causing to the society. For instance the Nourishing India program in relation to vitamins in edible oil has provided good results to both the company and the population of India. Although the impact is significant it is still a contribution towards the SDG. The principles of strategic evaluation can also be deployed for the purpose of evaluating the contributions. These include elements of consistency, consonance, feasibility and advantage (Armstrong et al. 2015).
Conclusion
The most revenant SDGs which have been identified by the report to the Fast- moving Consumer Goods sector in terms of positive and negative impact on the environment and the society are SDG 2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture SDG 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns and SDG 13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Various strategies which have been contributing towards three SDGs selected for this paper. The companies are aligning their objectives and strategies with the SDGs to ensure compliance and also to get a competitive example. These strategic contributions are not significant at individual level but a combined effort of the industrial and government sector will sure the success of the sustainable development mission around the world. The organizations are also making long term profit by their objectives and strategies with the SDGs.
References
Ali, S.H., Giurco, D., Arndt, N., Nickless, E., Brown, G., Demetriades, A., Durrheim, R., Enriquez, M.A., Kinnaird, J., Littleboy, A. and Meinert, L.D., 2017. Mineral supply for sustainable development requires resource governance. Nature, 543(7645), p.367.
Armstrong, C.M., Niinimäki, K., Kujala, S., Karell, E. and Lang, C., 2015. Sustainable product-service systems for clothing: exploring consumer perceptions of consumption alternatives in Finland. Journal of Cleaner production, 97, pp.30-39.
Charter, M. and Tischner, U. eds., 2017. Sustainable solutions: developing products and services for the future. Routledge.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Fuchs, D. and Boll, F., 2018. Sustainable consumption. In Global Environmental Politics (pp. 93-112). Routledge.
Sauvé, S., Bernard, S. and Sloan, P., 2016. Environmental sciences, sustainable development and circular economy: Alternative concepts for trans-disciplinary research. Environmental Development, 17, pp.48-56.
Spangenberg, J.H., 2017. Sustainable development: From catchwords to benchmarks and operational concepts. In Sustainable solutions (pp. 24-47). Routledge.
Tukker, A. and Tischner, U. eds., 2017. New business for old Europe: product-service development, competitiveness and sustainability. Routledge.
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