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Why
THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
17 Goals & 169 targets to achieve by 2030. How will you contribute?
Click on the Goals below to see how your brand could help shape the future of our planet.
"The Global Goals simply cannot be achieved without businesses. Through their core operations, financial commitments, employee networks, consumer facing platforms and high-level influence, businesses can make a vital contribution to accelerating progress towards the Goals.
Every company and every employee has a role to play in creating a more peaceful and prosperous future for people and for planet."
SDG
- 01SDG - TARGET End Poverty in all its forms everywhere IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS Work directly with producers to increase value addition in country - like Yala Jewellery and SOKO Kenya. Donate what you don’t use, and consider fundraising for charities that work to reduce poverty.
- 02SDG - TARGET End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS Give a % of your profit or volunteer time to charities that work to end hunger, or support people locally by giving to food banks. Both overseas and in the UK one in 10 school children go to school without breakfast and 9 million people in the UK live in food poverty
- 03SDG - TARGET Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS Find ways to improve the wellbeing of your staff or participate in campaigns to improve the health of your local community.
- 04SDG - TARGET Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS Offer apprenticeship schemes or become a mentor for others in the jewellery & fashion industry. Have a look at Fashion Enter's Apprenticeship Scheme as a starting point. Engage with local schools and share your learnings about the SDGs
- 05SDG - TARGET Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS Empower the women in your business - Consider endorsing the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles by signing a CEO Statement of Support Source materials from projects dedicated to reducing gender inequality eg IMPACT's Just Gold project
- 06SDG - TARGET Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS Work out your water footprint. Find ways to avoid wasting water in your studio. Tools like Water Footprint Network's calculator might help. Support projects that bring clean water to marginalised communities, such as Water Aid.
- 07SDG - TARGET Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all IDEAS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
- 08SDG - TARGET By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Create job opportunities for disadvantaged young people. Offer apprenticeships/work experience or participate in schemes to support young people into the industry. For example - trainer brand Veja are working with Ateliers Sans Frontières on logistics and delivery - an initiative that rehabilitates ex-offenders and drug users. Or clothing band Birdsong, who work with skilled women makers in the UK that face barriers to employment, and pay them a fair wage. Partner with organisations that support people through training and educating, like Little by Little Jewellery, who, with every purchase, provide a disadvantaged woman with a career-boosting day of training at a bakery to help build employment skills and experience.
- 09SDG - TARGET Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Develop less chemically intensive or wasteful ways of producing your pieces. Share your learnings so others can improve - like Ute Decker Jewellery's work on the Incorporation of Goldsmiths Ethical Making Resource. Offer services that disrupt the regular manufacturing and retail model eg. offering a hire or repair service. Contribute to industry innovation through platforms like the UK's Future Fashion Factory or WRAP's Textiles 2030 project
- 10SDG - TARGET Reduce inequalities within and amongst countries HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Support marginalised or disadvantaged people by sourcing from small-scale producers. For example choosing gold or cotton from Fairtrade certified producers. Donate to charities focusing on human rights.
- 11SDG - TARGET Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Bike, walk or use public transport. Consider joining a Cycle Scheme or encourage your staff to car share.
- 12SDG - TARGET Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Choose more sustainable materials, such as certified recycled Create a supplier code of conduct to ensure you are working with responsible manufacturers. Conduct a waste audit to see what you are wasting and why - reduce, reuse & recycle. Conduct an energy audit - Replace conventional lighting with LED lighting and switch to a green energy supplier. Embrace circular design and production like Mud Jeans
- 13SDG - TARGET Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Measure, reduce & offset your carbon emissions, with help from organisations like the Carbon Trust Encourage your staff to join the ActNow Climate Action challenge. Back Textile Exchange's Climate+ 2030 Strategy
- 14SDG - TARGET Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Avoid plastic – encourage your supplier to use alternative packaging, review your own packaging, reduce it and choose more sustainable materials. Take inspiration from clothing brand Finisterre and their marine friendly packaging. Support organisations working to tackle pollution - like jeweller Alex Monroe's Ocean’s Collection in partnership with Friends of the Earth. Sign up to the UK Plastics Pact.
- 15SDG - TARGET Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degredation and biodiversity loss HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Choose materials that have been produced in a way that protects the environment, such as Fairmined Eco Gold or IMPACT's Just Gold. Work with Canopy to support protection of ancient and endangered forests, which otherwise may end up in the viscose/rayon fabrics in our clothing. Consider donating to rainforest protection projects through a platform like One Tribe, which allows you to donate everytime a customer places an order or signs up to your mailing list. Or check our Riley Studio's work with the Tree Sisters project, which plants trees for every clothing item bought. Join 1% for the Planet to give back
- 16SDG - TARGET Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Stand up for the environment & human rights by lobbying government to commit to supporting social and environmental projects. Encourage industry buying groups and trade bodies to commit to the Goals
- 17SDG - TARGETS Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development. HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE Support external projects linked to the Goals – local or international initiatives – and be an ambassador for the Goals within your industry. Create a statement of action on the Goals for your brand – share it widely. Partner with V&V to embed the Goals into your business.
How we help
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