UN Global Compact: positively impacting our world and the environment

Rebecca Archer 

Welcome to The Remarkables – Grant Thornton’s podcast series dedicated to sharing extraordinary stories of individuals who are making significant contributions to their communities. 

With growing pressure on businesses to prioritise environmental, social, governance (ESG), and sustainability, it’s vital they align their overall business strategy with human rights and environmental principles. The UN Global Compact supports companies in adopting sustainable, socially responsible practices through providing global collaboration, tools, training and access to local networks.

I’m Rebecca Archer and today I’m joined by Dr Evan Center – an expert in environmental research, strategy, and partnerships. Evan is passionate about advancing sustainability programs that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Ten Principles.  

As ESG and sustainability becomes more central to business strategy, organisations need to effectively embed these principles into their core operations.

Welcome to the podcast, Evan!

Dr. Evan Center 

Thanks so much for having me, Rebecca.

Rebecca Archer

Now, to kick off the episode, we're going to jump straight into a rapid-fire round. I'm going to ask you some questions at random where you can respond with just whatever comes to mind. First of all – what are you reading or watching or listening to at the moment?

Dr. Evan Center 

I mean, obviously The Remarkables podcast is what I'm listening to, but in terms of podcasts, I've been really enjoying the Bottlenecks series of Zero, the Climate Race, where they're discussing things that are holding up SDG 13 Climate Action. The last episode that I listened to discussed how a job shortage is moving people from places like pastry manufacturing into battery manufacturing. So, it's kind of interesting to kind of see where those problems are occurring to develop more climate action towards those SDGs.

Rebecca Archer 

Okay, next up, what has been a pivotal moment in your career?

Dr. Evan Center 

I was an academic for a long time and in my research, I was very passionate about sustainable business, especially as it relates to the environment, but I yearn to do the practical stuff, the stuff that moves much quicker than research. No peer review process, but just really hard-earned business engagement, and I started working on SDGs and climate literacy and I ended up at the UN Global Compact leading our Australian environment and climate change programming.

Rebecca Archer

Okay, third question. If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

Dr. Evan Center 

Oh man. Probably our giant climate nature mess, right? I wouldn't be here if that wasn't probably the main objective of what I do, but we have this incredible nature opportunity here in Australia to flip the script. 

You hear all the talk and the rhetoric from business, from citizens, from not for profits about really engaging in this nature opportunity, and I would love to see us really rally together to build the blocks and build on the actions that have already been set out and that have been delivered and really deliver some global action. I think we can get business behind this. Local councils need it, but we'll need the support of the Federal Government, but really what I would like to see is us embrace that nature opportunity in support of real climate action.

Rebecca Archer 

Thank you so much. What can you tell us about your career journey? At any point, did you ever think that you'd end up where you are now?

Dr. Evan Center

Well, like a lot of wandering 20 somethings, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. So, I went back to school. While there I joined an onsite research study of Hurricane Katrina victims in southern Mississippi. We took a look at the climate impact that those communities really faced with extreme climate disaster, and during our research time we barely slept, and one night my mentor who was leading the trip and I, we both got hungry, we went to Maccas and we sat in the drive thru and he suggested I go into academia. 

I thought about it, I liked research, I loved teaching, and I had always been passionate about driving positive impact, and then I got accepted with his guidance into the University of Kansas to do a PhD where I studied environmental protests as it intersected with corporate responsibility.

Essentially, I took a look at the business and activism as they intersect. The reason I looked at business was because in a nutshell, it's much easier to change the practices of one business or a hundred businesses than to get a million or a billion consumers to change their day-to-day behaviours. 

So, in my own life I often saw that behaviour change kind of play out in regards to my own consumer guilt. A lot of the consumer guilt, especially in relation to environment and my friends and family of so many people that, you know, felt guilty for forgetting their reusable coffee cup. Yesterday I went to my local coffee spot called The Local – great coffee – and I forgot my coffee cup. I felt so bad. It happens like twice a year, and I was like, oh, do I drive home, the kids are running late for school. Like I just got to get my coffee, I got to get it, and I think a lot of people feel bad because they can't afford solar or an EV or the latest green thing, and all of those are good things to support if you can. 

But oftentimes those things are not accessible to the most vulnerable communities or those experiencing the current and future impacts of climate change, and on the flip side, just 100 companies have been responsible for more than 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions since the 1980s. It's a whole lot more effective to drive the goals of the Paris Agreement and climate mitigation efforts by working with hundreds of businesses instead of millions and billions of domestic and global consumers, and so, there are many people in those businesses that want to make sure that those actions are driving a better planet, but corporations are not people. They're just made of people, and the people I get to meet and work with are amazing and they're driving a lot of change and truly remarkable change within those corporations, and so now I've ended up here with a very cool job. 

I get to work with incredible people in government, business and academia to support net zero and nature positive efforts and connect with the global needs of our community on other topics.

Rebecca Archer 

What can you tell me about exactly what UN Global Compact does?

Dr. Evan Center 

Oh man, I love the UN Global Compact. Our tagline is ‘We're the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative’ Globally, we have about 25,000 corporations across 170 countries and those corporations are committed to sustainable business practices. 

We support business through our pillars of Lead, Learn and Connect and we help them align to their strategy and operations as a part of what we call our 10 principles to help them drive sustainable development goals or SDGs for short. Our 10 principles are divided up into basically four categories. These categories are of ethical or responsible business practice. We have business and human rights, we have labour, we have anti-bribery and corruption, and my area, which is environment and climate change.

In my area, basically we have three principles – 7, 8 and 9 of those 10 principles – that we really focus on helping businesses with their environmental engagement. We look to businesses to take a precautionary approach to environment – which is principle number seven; promote environmental responsibility – which is principle number eight, and I like to conceptualise those as kind of an environmental risk principle and a principle attached to environmental opportunity. 

So, we look at business risk in relation to the environment, which is very much a current thing, and then we look at the opportunities for those early movers and really driving the SDGs and looking towards those 10 principles and having really, really good sustainable business practices, and then the ninth principle is the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technology. This calls on corporations and investors to use all the technological resources available to protect our environment.

Rebecca Archer 

Evan, how and why should an organisation get involved with UN Global Compact?

Dr. Evan Center 

Well, in Australia we're pushing towards about 400 corporates. I think we have about 380 right now, and we're growing quickly. We have the majority of the ASX20 and we are growing towards 100 ASX listed corporates, and these are cross listed organizations that are willing to work together, and despite geopolitical tensions, we're growing fast and we're maintaining our momentum. 

There is a lot of talk about, you know, the death of ESG, the loss of momentum in ESG practices, but really when we look at sustainable business, I would encourage corporates to be part of that momentum that is happening right now in whatever capacity they can. We're seeing a lot of opportunity for those corporations that are moving quickly right now.

So building on our core pillars of Lead, Learn and Connect, we at the UN Global Compact, we seek to spotlight those businesses that are leading while we also provide support in the Learn pillar to those businesses that need to build their own capacity for sustainable business, and we also connect those organisations with each other, and that's the fun part, right? 

We have lots of events, we have lots of consultations and other things where we can bring together great businesses, we can bring together government, academia, not for profit, and we can all work together to unite for sustainable business action. What this actually looks like is helping corporates embrace peer learning groups, providing courses and resources to build capacity and capability for sustainability and linking those corporates into global networks to assist them with their sustainability goals. This allows for global collaboration tools and training, increased brand trust, investor confidence and overall positive public accountability, and we do ask our companies to voluntarily report. The reporting burden is large. I'll talk about that probably in a bit, but we ask them to report on their progress towards the SDGs and our 10 principles and make that progress public. 

There are also optional commitments to other things like our Forward Faster campaign where corporates can set science based targets to commit to climate action, drive sustainable finance initiatives, or support water resilience in other areas as well. So, there are different levels of commitments that corporations can make. But we do ask our corporations to really engage in sustainable business and to work with us and work with others as we really make that progress.

Rebecca Archer 

Does your organisation help to set global policy around ESG and sustainability?

Dr. Evan Center

Not a lot of people know this, but the UN Global Compact helped coin the term ESG working with other organisations such as UNEP, FI and the PRI, or the Principles of Responsible Investment – the UN loves a good acronym to describe themselves, especially with ESG and SDG and all the acronyms, right? We live in a world of acronyms. 

But if we think of the term ESG, which means environment, social and governance, and this is reporting on ESG, it was established in the ‘Who Cares Wins’ Report put out by the UN Global Compact and those other organisations in 2004. Now, the concept of ESG was around before that term, but the UNGC was very much a part of this birth, so to speak, and currently there's more than a fair amount of people and politicians, especially globally, that are calling for the death of ESG, and I would suggest that as very much alive, we are seeing increasing talk about the death of ESG theatre, for instance, as corporations kind of move beyond ESG as an outside concept and really bring it in as a part of their strategy. 

I read something recently by journalist Matthew Ross who explains ESG is essentially dead in terms of theatre as businesses like Norges bank – who's a UN Global Compact participant – put 96 per cent of their $1.6t portfolio as being assessed by nature risk. So, what they're looking at is, they're looking at their own risk in nature.

So, ESG moves from being an outside thing to something that's simply integrated into business risk and opportunity. So, I wouldn't say ESG is dying. I'd say it's actually just getting started and even more becoming standardised as climate risk becomes very much a part of a here and now problem in the very short term for businesses and their shareholders. global policy. 

In terms of global policy, at the UN Global Compact we have this wonderful ability to not only support our businesses, but to showcase what cross sectoral collaboration for sustainability looks like, and we can feed this input into government, to the regulators, and even to other businesses who are looking to mitigate their own climate risks. 

One example of this is through our alliance with the Global Commons. This allows us to support net zero initiatives on this global scale via science-based targets, while also working with others domestically to provide policy feedback for massive organisations. 

A great example of what we're doing on the ground locally is with greenwashing. Our head of Sustainability Governance, Stan Wilcock, was one of the first to consult with businesses on greenwashing risk for our organisation and our response was massive. We had an overwhelming engagement from our businesses and we're able to: 

1. Provide feedback to them on their needs for regulatory bodies and the requirements that were going to be put on them to avoid greenwashing.
   
   
2. But also to support businesses in recognizing where greenwashing was in their communications and make sure that they can report more accurately on the good things that they're doing, rather than, you know, pointing out things that maybe business isn't engaged as well and that might subject them to more regulatory engagement that they might not want. 

So, the course was super popular. We're taking it internationally and we're always here to support our businesses in that way.

Rebecca Archer

In this challenging market. What should businesses really be focusing on right now when it comes to ESG and sustainability?

Dr. Evan Center

Well, if we think of ESG or Environment, Social and Governance reporting, I think businesses should be focused on that E section – that climate reporting – and this is where I'd like corporations to start their focus. I like to think of it this way: there are often two levers that drive corporate change. Those are capital and policy.

Corporations need financial flows to keep their gears turning and they are subject to governmental regulatory requirements. Climate reporting actually provides levers for both. It's a fun intersection there and it sets that responsibility at the highest level. 

The kicker with climate reporting is that puts that responsibility at the director level on the Board of Directors for that organisation, and it's a rare moment where we see investors, businesses, governments and activists aligning to really shape the impact of the private sector on sustainability. Investors may want to use reporting, for instance, to assess climate risk and compare apples to apples, right? If you have the same report, you can kind of take a look at one business and the other business and not just the things that they're trying to highlight.

Governments can increasingly need transparency to understand private sector impact and align to the goals of the Paris Agreement. We'll actually see our own government's climate action plan soon, hopefully, which is called an NDC, which is essentially just what we're doing in alignment with the Paris Agreement, and that will be released hopefully pretty soon. 

Environmental activists can also hold corporations to account with credible reporting efforts. While no business wants to be the brunt of activism, there's an opportunity for activists to also platform those corporations whose employees and shareholders, those people in those corporations are leading the world in sustainable business practices, and there are some incredible experts working in this reporting space right now. Truly remarkable people, so to speak, reporting superheroes, if you will, or reporting rock stars. I don't know if you can say rock stars. It's kind of nerdy for a rock star topic. 

But some of those rock stars like Lachlan McDonald Kerr, Grant Thornton's own Samantha Sing Key, Rain Vandenberg, Anna Stewart, Karen McWilliams, Anna and Karen both sit on our Board and there are a plethora of others in the space really driving meaningful reporting practices. They're doing good work. Most of them are accountants and lawyers and accountants and lawyers are working together and they're working together to provide the type of corporate transparency that has the potential to assist climate mitigation and adaption efforts for right here and right now, and this is this effort…it's not an easy effort and it's not easy for business. The expectations are high for corporates, those great people and others are at the forefront of climate reporting and it's really not going to stop there.

The International Sustainability Standards Board, or ISSB as it's called, has now consulted with global business and is prioritising both social reporting and nature reporting efforts next, and so while we're just getting started on climate reporting and climate reporting is a lot, it's not going to stop there. Corporations will need to build cross team capacity for incorporating nature as the climate counterpart and add in social reporting down the line. 

Reporting is this crucial step in our net zero and nature positive efforts. In the words of our fantastic Board Chair and former Principals of Responsible Investment CEO or PRI CEO Fiona Reynolds, ESG is so much more than a tick box exercise for our businesses working hard on their sustainability reporting efforts in that E space of the ESG right here, right now. Reporting provides this incredible step in driving sustainable business practice.

Rebecca Archer 

I wonder if we could have a bit of a look now at how UN Global Compact helps to drive positive change for Australia in reaching climate target agreements?

Dr. Evan Center

We do a lot. We do consultations with our corporate participants, we get that feedback, we give it back to government. We work with the other fantastic peak body associations in the area to feed back to government on things like ambitious business sustainability practice and the things that ambitious businesses and investors would like to see in terms of climate action. 

One thing that's emerged is that we started working through a select group of ASX 30s just about a year and a half ago and other climate reporting entities that were a little bit more advanced in that reporting space. We developed an advanced climate reporters community of practice and we were able to leverage those learnings to help guide the rest of Australian businesses and their reporting efforts. 

We've been able to also utilise our relationship with government. For example, last year at our UN Global Compact Uniting Business Live conference, Assistant Secretary General and UN Global Compact CEO Sanda Ojambo came out here on our first official Australian visit. The conference was hectic and crazy, but it was amazing, and during the middle of that conference, I had this opportunity to support a bilateral discussion with her. 

We had a great conversation on nature positive business and are seeing some potentially really, really good outcomes come from that conversation. So, you get to be involved in those conversations, you get to see them, you get to really drive where they're going, and really, you have to work a lot to make the needle move a little, but it's really cool what you get to see. Maybe one other thing that I'll mention is on the periphery of what we're doing. There's been a lot of buzz about the lead up to a potential COP31 in Adelaide, and we're helping support UN leadership to push for an ambitious Australian NDC or our Climate Action Plan with engagement from government to support the private sector. 

So, we want to make sure that we're getting private sector feedback into COP31. We want to make sure that we're connecting our global counterparts into our government, our businesses, and making sure that we can really create and drive a successful cop if it comes here.

Rebecca Archer 

It's really clear in your voice. You can hear the passion and the excitement coming out. I wonder if you could perhaps offer a key takeaway for the listeners and maybe speak to any exciting projects that you've got coming up for UN Global Compact?

Dr. Evan Center 

Oh man. I think everyone in this space in terms of exciting projects is probably drinking from a fire hose. There's a lot of exciting things going on, but it's a lot of work. 

If you're a business, you have an opportunity here in this ESG space to stand out. So, make your reporting efforts meaningful because they are, what we're doing is meaningful, both in terms of business risk and opportunity, and now is the time for corporations to really demonstrate some action to let our businesses, our investors, know that if they're embracing good reporting, good ESG, good sustainable business, there's a lot more opportunity available than backlash, and times are a little bit scary. 

I've seen a lot of other organisations talk about that backlash and ESG, but I really see every time I talk to an organisation, there's a little bit of apprehensiveness, but there's a lot more excitement about the momentum that is continuing to grow. So, let's build on that momentum. 

And if you're an activist, if you're not a giant business, if you're not someone that's working with your sustainability team or functions within those businesses, you know, feel free in your own time to read those sustainability reports that businesses are now having to release, and not to just identify issues, but to encourage those people in those organizations that are driving that positive change. Hold the corporations accountable, but also spotlight the good things that they're doing, and here are some of the things that we've got on our radar. 

We're working with organisations like the ASX to develop a Sustainability Reporting Hub. This will feature a massive community of practice to safely posit questions and work through reporting issues, because it is a lot. And our Sustainability Reporting hub will also provide a resource base and coursework to build capacity within those reporting entities, and we also have loads of events and they're fun, so come along. You know, they're good networking events and good just information gathering events and educational events and ways to gather tools and resources. We really want to make sure that our businesses connect. 

So, we have our absolutely incredible Uniting Business Live conference happening in 2026 again in Sydney. We've got a regional business and human rights forum coming up here in just a couple months. We have a Sustainability Governance forum, and a Critical Minerals Roundtable slated for Melbourne and Perth respectively, and we've some networking events and an invite only CEO and executive roundtable as well. 

So, there's a lot of things to be engaged with. Stay connected. I want to draw attention to that connection as we connect to our Global Compact participants. We see those bigger events too, making sure that our Australian businesses are connected to things like the UN General assembly in New York and COP 30 in BOEM Brazil, and I'm a huge believer in those people. 

So as a takeaway, you know, there's so many people driving really remarkable sustainable corporate change. So put pressure on those corporations, but empower those truly remarkable people. It's a lot easier to change a single business than millions of its consumers.

Rebecca Archer

Evan, it sounds so exciting and you've got so much going on. That's a really full slate. How if people are interested in becoming involved or learning more, should they reach out and get in touch?

Dr. Evan Center 

Go to our main website, unglobalcompact.org and you can find us, you can find me on LinkedIn. We're very engaged, we're happy to support. Drop me a line. I'll be happy to point you in the right direction. If I can help you out, I'll do so.

Rebecca Archer

If you liked this podcast and want to hear more incredible stories, be sure to follow and subscribe to The Remarkables podcast by Grant Thornton Australia on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 

Have you subscribed to our newsletter? Keep up to date with the latest developments in accounting, tax and consulting – delivered directly to your inbox every fortnight. The link to subscribe is in the show notes.

I’m Rebecca Archer – thank you for listening.