1- Introduction:
Reporting on Sustainability is an act that involves three major pillars, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
On 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals “SDGs” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Over the next fifteen years, with these new goals that universally apply to all, countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities, and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind. It is clear that the SDGs not only identify where we have to be in 2030 to create a sustainable world, they also outline new markets and opportunities for organizations all over the world. To succeed, organizations must turn the global goals into local business.
The UN Global Compact is the leading catalyst of that transformation. The Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact are derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organizations Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. UN Global Compact offers an extensive toolbox ranging from leadership engagement platforms to best practices and resources that will help organizations embed the Ten Principles into their operations, identify new opportunities to advance the SDGs and partner with the United Nations. The UN Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation.
The Global Reporting Initiative "GRI" is an independent international organization that has pioneered sustainability reporting since 1997. “GRI” is the bridge between businesses and governments, enabling them both to make positive contributions to the UN SDGs. GRI helps businesses and governments worldwide understand and communicate their impact on critical sustainability issues such as climate change, human rights, governance and social well-being. This enables real action to create social, environmental and economic benefits for everyone. The GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards "GRI Standards" are the first and most widely adopted global standards for sustainability reporting.
The UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, and GRI, the world’s leading organization for sustainability reporting, have formed a groundbreaking action platform to tackle this challenge. Business Reporting on the SDGs will complement the GRI Standards and the UN Global Compact Communication on Progress, and enable measuring and reporting on the SDGs.
Reporting, however, is neither the start nor the end of a company’s sustainability strategy and implementation – it is a strategic tool that:
2- AASTMT Engagement
AASTMT decided to become among the pioneers in the academic sector in the Arab region to report on sustainability. The Sustainable report by the AASTMT links between the UN Global Compact Ten Principles, the fundamental principles they were based on, as well as the contribution that these can make towards the achievement of the SDGs.
The linkage demonstrated by in the AASTMT Sustainability Report can be briefly shown in the below table.
AASTMT issued its first Sustainability Report in 2018 and will periodically issue further reports demonstrating our commitment to sustainability, the SDGs, and the UN Global Compact principles.
