Founded in 1999 by Kofi Annan, the UN Global Compact has become the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. More than 13,000 participants have joined the initiative to align their strategies with ten universal principles in the areas human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption (see UNGC, 2019). Since January 2014, the DFGE has been also a member of the UN Global Compact. Thus, our first Communication on Progress (CoP) has been published in 2015. Last week, on 25th January 2019, we have published our fifth UNGC CoP report covering the business year 2018.
Your benefit by providing an UN Global Compact report
In cases of a serious application of the UNGC framework and the credible execution of the universal principles, a company would benefit eminently by providing an annual CoP report. A few reasons are given below:
- Simple framework for structuring, measuring and communicating the own sustainability management
- Continuous improvement of a companies’ sustainability performance
- Contribution to a more sustainable (business) world
How to submit your annual CoP report
New participants must submit their first CoP one year after joining the initiative. Therefore, every participant has its own individual deadline to publish the report. Every report has at least to contain a statement of the CEO regarding the ongoing UNGC support, as well as measures and qualitative and/or quantitative figures to address the defined principles within the four topics in an individual practical context. The report type can differ, usually based on a companies’ size, structure and sustainability management. It can be used as a stand-alone document, as part of a sustainability report or as part of an annual financial report (further support and prepared documents are given by the UNGC here). Furthermore, a participant must define the CoP differentiation level: GC Active or GC Advanced. For GC Active, a company only has to meet the minimum requirements named above. For a GC Advanced report, further requirements are necessary, e. g. implementing the ten principles into Strategies & Operations, Corporate Sustainability Governance and Leadership, etc.
14 new actions in DFGE’s 2019 CoP report
For DFGE’s annual CoP reports, we have used always the GC Active level. After a general introduction into each topic (human rights, labour, environment, anti-corruption), we communicate established and new actions as well as a measurement of our 2018 outcomes within each area. In the end of the CoP report are listed our 2018 targets and achievements, as well as our new targets for the business year 2019.
Our 2019 CoP includes 14 new actions allocated over all four topics. Furthermore, we communicate several qualitative and quantitative outcomes of our 2018 activities, e. g. the amount of donating human rights supporting organizations, our own Corporate Carbon Footprint, etc. To gain more information you can access our latest CoP on our website as well as on the website of the UN Global Compact.
DFGE’s UNGC support
We support companies in their sustainability reporting requirements, i. a. in their UNGC efforts. According to our UNGC product packages we can support you in preparing and publishing an UN Global Compact report based on your individual needs. In cases of any questions don’t hesitate to contact us via or via phone: +49 8192 99733 20.
